More than an hour after her Tuesday lunchtime appointment for the COVID-19 tests required for a long-awaited trip to the UK later this week, Emily Graff and her four children were still waiting behind about 40 other cars at one Ride in the line-up clinic in the parking lot of the Mount Olympus Senior Center.
“It’s very frustrating when I feel like we’re trying to stick by the rules,” said Graff, a management consultant who changed her work schedule and removed her children for the appointment at a test site near her vacation home School had been scheduled to close at 2pm
People without an appointment waited in the same line as those who had set a specific time for the test, Graff said, adding, “I’m pretty shocked at the lack of, I would say, organization and staff,” especially as others, including she, a 16-year-old son, was able to get tested quickly over the summer.
In the end, she said it took almost three hours to get to the top of the row.
Sandy’s Catherine Jeppsen and two of her daughters experienced the same wait in the drive-up clinic – “half of ‘Cruella’ and two-thirds of ‘Beauty and Beast’,” the films they saw on their cell phones, she said . Jeppsen picked the girls up at school and stood in line for the tests before 11 a.m. after the youngest, 5 years old, vomited in class.
By the time they reached the top of the snake, it was too dehydrated to produce saliva for the test, Jeppsen said, but the results of a nasal swab were negative for COVID-19. “I would take it anytime if one of my children were sick,” she said.
Catherine Jeppsen helps her daughters attempt to collect saliva for COVID-19 testing outside the Mount Olympus Senior Center in Millcreek on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Still, Jeppsen asked why it was taking so long.
“It used to always be faster,” she said, noting that her three daughters had all been tested for the virus beforehand. Now that the school is back up and running amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in Utah and the rest of the country, Jeppsen said the test sites should have been ready for the onslaught.
“It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, so why aren’t we better prepared? There were two people who did all of the tests on these cars, ”she said. “I don’t know if we’re tired of it and that’s why we don’t want to spend more resources on it. We want it to be over, so we pretend it’s over, but it’s frustrating. “
Will Utah officials open additional test sites?
Utah Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko said the state is trying to nearly double the number of test sites it operates from 16 to 31 over the next month by hiring about 200 health care workers to keep pace with expected rising demand to keep.
Hudachko said last week alone that the number of COVID-19 tests had increased by 10 to 15%, leading to complaints of long lines at some test sites. As of Friday, 38,555 people have been tested in Utah and 58,564 tests have been carried out for the virus, according to the health department.
“We are committed to making COVID-19 testing as efficient as possible for all Utah residents. Some test sites reported long waits while others reported waits of just a few minutes. We are constantly evaluating resources and operations and will make any changes we can to be more efficient, ”he said.
All of the state’s current test sites, except the one located at the Utah Public Health Laboratory in West Valley City, are now operated by a contractor, Nomi Health, Hudachko said, allowing staff to switch to mobile test units for schools, Long-term care facilities, prisons, and other places where outbreaks have occurred.
A Nomi Health spokeswoman Jenny Olson said the Labor Day holiday caused the long waits as test sites closed on Monday. She said that “the need for testing has increased across Utah,” and the Orem-based company is “actively recruiting more staff during the week to meet that surge.”
When asked if the Utahners could expect long lines after Tuesday, Olson said, “Probably no. All measures are taken and activated to ensure minimal waiting times as quickly as possible. In addition to increasing the workforce, the on-site employees work non-stop, skip breaks, etc. and do their best to serve everyone. “
Coronavirus testing peaked last winter, and many mass testing sites switched to COVID-19 vaccinations as vaccinations become more available to Utahners. Now anyone 12 and older is eligible for the vaccine, but less than half of all Utahns are fully vaccinated, which means it has been two weeks or more since their last dose.
Before the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus spread, state health officials were hoping the tests would be completed, Hudachko said. However, this is not happening given the vaccination rate in a population that, with few exceptions, no longer needs to wear masks or take other precautions against COVID-19.
“Of course, if we vaccinated more people, we would reduce the burden,” he said.
Utah’s latest COVID-19 case is counting
On Tuesday, the state Department of Health reported 4,657 new COVID-19 cases and 27 additional deaths from the virus in Utah since Friday. Twenty-nine cases were removed from the state’s total of 474,086 cases through data quality analysis, the department said.
There were 1,871 new cases on Friday, 1,187 new cases on Saturday, 922 on Sunday and 707 new cases on Monday. A total of 1,151 of the new COVID-19 cases affected school-age children, including 493 between the ages of 5 and 10; 290 who are 11 to 13 years old; and 368, who are 14 to 18 years old.
The 7-day rolling average for positive tests is 1,382 per day, and the 7-day rolling average for percent positivity of tests is now 9.5% when all results are included and 12.6% when multiple tests by one person can be excluded.
A total of 3,296,467 doses of the viral vaccine were administered in Utah, up from 15,438 doses since Friday.
There are currently 482 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah. The state’s death toll has reached 2,685, with 27 new deaths reported since Friday. They are:
- A Cache County woman between the ages of 25 and 44 was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Davis County woman, aged 65 to 84, was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Utah County man, between 25 and 44 years old, not hospitalized.
- A Salt Lake County man between 65 and 84 years old was not hospitalized.
- A Salt Lake County woman, aged 65-84, resident in a long-term care facility.
- A Davis County man, older than 85, was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Salt Lake County man, older than 85, was not hospitalized.
- A Washington County man, aged between 45 and 64, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Washington County woman, aged 65 to 84, was hospitalized at the time of her death.
- A Davis County man aged 65 to 84 was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Salt Lake County man, aged 65 to 84, resident of a long-term care facility.
- A Washington County woman, aged 45 to 64, was hospitalized at the time of her death.
- A Box Elder County woman, between 45 and 64, was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Washington County woman, older than 85, was hospitalized at the time of her death.
- A Davis County man aged 65 to 84 was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Salt Lake County woman, aged between 65 and 84, was hospitalized at the time of her death.
- A Uintah County man, aged between 45 and 64, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Davis County man, between 45 and 64, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Washington County man, aged between 45 and 64, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Weber County man, between 65 and 84, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Sevier County woman, older than 85, was hospitalized at the time of death.
- A Beaver County man, between 45 and 64, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Sanpete County man aged 65 to 84 was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Washington County man, between 65 and 84 years old, was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Utah County man aged 25 to 44 was hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Washington County man, between 65 and 84, not hospitalized.
- A Utah County man aged 65 to 84 was hospitalized at the time of his death.
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