To Many, It's Back To Square One For Local COVID-19 Testing

MELROSE, MA — Just before noon Tuesday, Melrose Public Schools parents received an email from Health Director Anthony Chui asking "all students to get a PCR test to confirm their results for return to school" on Jan. 3. Negative at-home rapid antigen tests will not be accepted, because they represent, as Chui said, only "a snapshot in time."

That email was followed by another less than hour later, seeking to clarify that a PCR test is only required for students and staff who test positive with an at-home rapid antigen test or if they have symptoms.

The first email sent parents scrambling. The second neutralized the shock somewhat, but still had many wondering the best way to get their kids tested.

It's a question residents across Massachusetts in need of COVID-19 testing are constantly wrestling with. Perhaps they're seeing the grandparents, or returning to work or school, or have the sniffles, or been exposed ... any of a pile of reasons one may seek a sense of certainty.

But as Chui indicated, at-home rapid antigen tests aren't sure things, assuming you can even find and afford one.

So you need a PCR test. If you live in the area, you drive up to Square One Mall, but even if you think you've gotten there early, you're probably late.

People are waiting several hours at the Saugus testing site off Route 1, once the most accessible large-scale PCR testing option around but now jammed up with lines hundreds of cars deep as the omicron variant fuels an unprecedented COVID-19 surge.

For many living just north of Boston, testing is almost as hard to access nearly two years into the pandemic as it was at the beginning.

The difficulty comes as testing becomes more necessary than ever for some. People are being turned away if the line gets too long and becomes a safety issue, or if it comes too close to the 7 p.m. close time. Some people have reported getting turned away before testing even starts.

Terrilee, who declined to give her last name, came from Medford to be the first person in line Wednesday morning. She got there at 8, guaranteeing herself a six-hour wait.

"I kept wondering, they better open this damn place, because otherwise I'd be sitting here for nothing!" she told Patch from her window, which was perpetually open because so many people were driving by to ask questions about testing.

A home healthcare worker, Terrilee needed to get tested before seeing her clients after she was exposed to the virus over the holidays.

"Part of the problem is this place should be open earlier," she said, just feet from an electronic sign that told people to expect long waits. "Look at the line of cars. I think there's a line of 30 or 40 cars behind me, and they've been sitting here, not as long as I have, but close to it."

Transformative Healthcare performs the PCR testing at Square One. A spokesperson told Patch the company is willing and able to expand hours and locations, but the orders come from the state, which foots the bill. So far, it's just those five hours a day, five days a week.

The state, it appears, has no immediate plans to fund expansion. A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services didn't address questions about the site in an email, but touted the state's 38 free Stop the Spread sites and it is testing "more than almost any other state in the country, with about 100,000 tests being completed every day."

While Transformative is testing more than 500 per day of late, many continue to be frustrated at the lack anything resembling convenient testing.

"I know it's difficult to find one," Chui told Patch over the phone. He recommended Project Beacon as an alternative, which offers free by-appointment testing in Lynn and Revere.

Readers told Patch they've found success with free and relatively quick testing performed by Curative at a site behind Malden Catholic. Walk-ins are accepted, but appointments are encouraged. Hundreds of slots are available next week.

Others suggested testing at Suffolk Downs in Revere, while others were booking days in advance at pharmacies.

If you need same-day testing, be prepared to pay up. One reader said for travel purposes he used a same-day testing site in Boston that cost under $200. It was only a five-minute process.

But if time is money, it seems you're paying wherever you go these days.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi and Instagram at Melrose Happening. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook

This article originally appeared on the Melrose Patch