People seeking drive-up coronavirus tests in Phoenix faced a three-mile-long car line last weekend. On Friday, Arizona’s largest laboratory received twice as many samples as it could process. The phone line for testing appointments at a large site on the state fairgrounds now opens at 7 a.m. with 800 callers already in the queue.
By 7:07 a.m., all 1,000 appointments for the day are typically taken.
“We are literally overwhelmed with the numbers requested,” said Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer at Banner Health, the hospital system that runs the fairground site. “The testing is very popular, and very needed, but we don’t have enough of it.”
The United States’ coronavirus testing capacity has begun to strain as the pandemic continues to spread, with over 35,000 cases recorded Tuesday. Across the country, more than a dozen public laboratories say they are now “challenged” to meet the demand.
The problem has become especially acute in Arizona, where the rapid spread of the virus has left health care providers and medical labs no longer able to meet testing demands.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/...action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
kinda shocking that issues having to do with testing capacity and logistics are still cropping up
