COVID-19 testing demand is up as holiday looms and Illinois sees most single-day cases since Dec. 1, 2020
With five days to go before Christmas, Cristian Ruiz rushed out with her three children Monday morning to get them all tested for COVID-19 due to a school exposure, joining the masses of other Chicagoans seeking out tests as the virus surges across the city.
For Ruiz and her children, 8 months, 10 and 12, the hunt for an on-site test was relatively simple, but they couldn’t get a test with a fast result. So the family is quarantining, expecting to wait about five days for their results.
“Our picture with Santa, we never got to have that,” Ruiz said ruefully, planning to settle in at home with her family for a few days.
With Christmas looming and COVID-19 surging in Illinois, health care providers are reporting high demand for COVID-19 tests, while many people are also having a tough time finding rapid, at-home tests. On Monday, Illinois health officials reported the most single-day cases of COVID-19 since Dec. 1, 2020.
State health officials reported 12,328 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, though that day’s total may have been inflated by delays in test results being reported over Thanksgiving weekend.
Shelves of rapid, at-home tests appeared picked over at many Chicagoland Walgreens and CVS stores. The BinaxNOW tests, a popular at-home test option, was out of stock for shipping at Walgreens and Walmart, though some stores appeared to have inventory for pickup. In social media groups dedicated to COVID-19 issues, people swapped intel on where they were able to find at-home tests for purchase.
A search of city ZIP codes for upcoming on-site test appointments at CVS and Walgreens on Monday afternoon also turned up few options.
CVS Health is seeing more patients seeking on-site testing, CVS said in a statement. Results for PCR tests are usually available within one to two days, but “may take longer due to local surges in COVID-19 cases.”
When a CVS store is short on rapid, at-home tests “our teams have a process in place to replenish supply,” CVS said in the statement.
And Walgreens has seen an “unprecedented” increase in demand for rapid, at-home tests and is working with suppliers to make them available through the holidays, said spokeswoman Kris Lathan in a statement. Some Walgreens stores “may experience a temporary shortage,” she said, and she encouraged consumers to visit the Walgreens website to see updated store inventory. Walgreens is also seeing more demand for on-site COVID-19 tests and is, overall, able to meet that demand, but in some areas people may have to book testing appointments one to two days in advance or drive farther for them, Lathan said.
Area hospitals and clinics are also reporting testing increases.
At Esperanza Health Centers in Chicago, where Ruiz and her children were tested, a spokeswoman said demand for tests there has been spiking since Thanksgiving, and their testing site is booked solid for the next three days.
At Amita Health, which has 19 hospitals in Illinois, demand for testing has doubled since the summer.
The system administered more than 3,000 COVID-19 tests in the past week, said Dr. Dana Vais, system medical director for infectious disease services. Because of that increased demand, it’s now taking about 22 to 27 hours to get PCR test results back, which is longer than before the last couple of weeks, she said.
PCR tests are molecular tests that find genetic material from the virus, and they are generally more sensitive than rapid, at-home antigen tests, but they can take longer to return results.
Demand always rises for testing when COVID-19 surges, and this latest surge has been no different, Vais said.
The upcoming Christmas holiday may be adding to that demand, though Vais suspects that many of the people who want to get tested ahead of gatherings are seeking rapid, at-home tests rather than PCR ones.
“I would not recommend any holiday gathering without the people there having at least an antigen test,” Vais said. Rapid, at-home tests are antigen tests.
“If we want to get through this, we really have to make testing as easy as possible, widely available,” she said.
If a person is having even mild symptoms and tests positive at home with a rapid test, the person does not need to confirm the result with a PCR test, she said. An asymptomatic person who tests negative at home also does not need to confirm that result. But a person with symptoms who tests negative at home should seek out a PCR test as well, she said.
Northwestern Medicine has seen a 23% increase in COVID-19 testing over the last week at its immediate care sites, compared with the previous 90 days, said Heather Keirnan, vice president of operations for Northwestern’s immediate care services.
At Northwestern, people can get tests with a physician’s order, which can be obtained for some patients through Northwestern’s MyChart system or a telehealth visit, among other ways. Northwestern is now working to boost its number of virtual appointments, she said.
“With this increased demand and the holiday looming, we are recruiting more of our providers to be able to open up more slots for people to make it easier,” Keirnan said.
Many people are seeking PCR tests now because they’re getting ready to travel to areas that require negative tests, she said. Others are symptomatic, have been exposed to COVID-19 or simply want to make sure they’re illness free before celebrating Christmas with relatives.
Over the past week, the state has averaged 10,179 new cases per day, the most since the week ending Nov. 26, 2020, when last fall’s massive case surge was just beginning to subside.
Cases have more than doubled in the past month, up from an average of 4,229 per day during the week ending Nov. 20. Just since last week, the average is up 42%, from 7,153 daily cases.
While some cases are breakthrough infections, the vast majority continue to be among those who are not fully vaccinated. Health officials across the country are urging everyone who is eligible to receive a booster to get a third shot as concerns grow about the omicron variant, which appears to render the two-dose regimen of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines less effective.
This year’s pre-Christmas surge comes as hospitals’ resources are being stretched by a flood of patients with COVID-19 as well as other ailments.
With more people planning to gather with friends and family for the holidays this year, the surge in cases has driven the demand for testing to its highest level of the pandemic.
Over the past week, the state has averaged 186,079 test results reported per day. That’s nearly double the number during the same week last year, when testing was in more limited supply and the state averaged 93,956 results reported per day.
During the week ending Nov. 20 (five days before Thanksgiving), the state was averaging 127,225 test results per day.
A rise in the case positivity rate — the percentage of new cases as a share of total tests — suggests the recent increase in cases is a sign of more transmission of the coronavirus in the community rather than merely a function of more testing. The statewide case positivity rate was 5.5% for the week ending Sunday, up from 4% a week earlier.
The last time the number of new cases was this high, in late November 2020, the statewide case positivity rate was averaging above 10%.
