Yessica Hernandez鈥檚 son started feeling a little sick after the holidays, and he couldn鈥檛 go back to school without a COVID negative test. Hernandez says she looked around for at-home tests, but couldn鈥檛 find any at the time.
But then she learned her son鈥檚 school district was holding tests. She waited two hours to get tested in her car with both children, and was told results would reach her the next day.
鈥淗aving to wait in the car with both kids, it can be frustrating especially if one needs to be fed and the other one just needs to be kept calm because obviously kids are anxious in the car if they're waiting for that long,鈥� Hernandez said.
It's been five days now, and Hernandez says she still doesn鈥檛 have her son鈥檚 test results.
But she says she did eventually find out her son was negative for COVID after finding an at-home test kit later in the week. Now, he鈥檚 back in school.
Former Wichita Falls resident Claire Eby, who now lives in Austin, says it was a similar struggle to find a COVID test closer to the end of 2021.
Since she has arthritis and is immunocompromised, she decided to get tested after going to a wedding and spending the holidays at home in Wichita Falls, just to make sure everything was alright.
But when she went to Walgreen's where she had gotten rapid tests for her and her family just a week before, she found no appointments available for the next four days. And she had to get back to work in Austin.
鈥淚t was very unusual to not be able to find a test in Wichita Falls because usually they're pretty available,鈥� Eby said. 鈥淚t is a smaller community but it was highly unusual.鈥�
Eby also noticed that a lot of the pop-up testing sites that had been open earlier in the pandemic had shut down. As a result, more people were rushing to the same testing sites, and less appointments were available.
Eby ended up getting tested in Austin when she got back. But unlike Hernandez, everywhere she looked, she couldn鈥檛 find an at-home testing kit.
鈥淲hen I talked to people, it sounded like you really had to be there when the shipment arrived in order to get a rapid test.鈥�
Got a tip? Email Haya Panjwani at hpanjwani@kera.org. Follow Haya on Twitter @hayapanjw
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