JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A day after having to close two hours early because it reached capacity for the number of tests it could administer, the COVID-19 testing site at the former Kmart in Neptune Beach announced Tuesday morning that it was temporarily closing its line for safety concerns.
Because of the high demand, the line had stretched around the building and onto Atlantic Boulevard, causing traffic hazards and forcing Telescope Health, which is doling out more than 325 PCR and rapid tests at the site, to turn some away.
A few hours later, drivers were again able to move through the line without waiting. Telescope Health is working with the police department to make sure the line never extends out onto Atlantic Boulevard.
Our Neptune Beach Test Site has temporarily closed the line to keep everyone safe and the line off of Atlantic Blvd. We will be opening it up throughout the day as we work on servicing the community.
— Telescope Health (@telescopehealth) December 28, 2021
Visit https://t.co/FMzd4tlQEH for info on test locations in Jacksonville.
The holidays and omicron variant are causing a spike in COVID-19 testing and cases across Northeast Florida.
The chief operating officer of Telescope Health said just last week, the workers had been testing around 40-50 people a day. Now, they’re testing around 300. So with that, they’re working to add to their staff to keep up with the demands. With the surge in COVID-19 cases, he said this is a work in progress.
“I think one of the big factors is that we’re the only site that is open this early and can handle this capacity and so as the day goes on, what we’ve seen historically in the last year is that this becomes a much smoother process throughout the day. And as we add more staff, hopefully, we can get everybody in who wants to come,” said Dr. Matt Thompson, COO of Telescope Health.
Many testing sites reopened Monday after closing down for several days because of the Christmas holiday. The Neptune Beach site had a long line before 7 a.m. Monday, and by 1 p.m., it reached capacity.
News4JAX visited the city-run Emmett Reed, Lane Wiley and Cuba Hunter community centers on Monday. All were busy with a surge in demand for COVID-19 testing across the area. More details about capacities and pre-registration are available at JaxReady.com.
LIST: COVID-19 testing sites in Northeast Florida
Florida reported 39,000 COVID-19 cases on Monday, representing the Christmas holiday weekend. That’s 21,040 cases Saturday and 17,955 Sunday.
A major switch from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevnetion now means people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 won’t have to wait long to get back to their lives.
It’s now recommending a five-day isolation period instead of 10, for anyone WITHOUT symptoms. The clock starts the day you test positive. After five days, you can return to normal as long as you wear a mask around others for another five days.
Dr. Jonathan Kantor from the Penn Center for Global Health stressed the importance of isolating.
“You know, if you are somebody who is living in a cabin in the woods by yourself, and you don’t see anyone, then you could argue that getting tested really doesn’t matter all that much. But for most of us who are out there interacting with people, whether it’s family members, whether it’s coworkers, whether it’s the people in the supermarket, it’s very helpful to know because if you know you’ve got COVID, hopefully, you’re going to do the right thing,” Kantor said.
With long lines at those government-run sites, many people are opting to go the private testing route. That includes pharmacies, doctor’s offices and urgent care centers like Avecina Medical. Doctors there said most people’s insurance covers the tests, so they don’t have to pay out of pocket.
However, getting an appointment can take patience.
“It takes less interaction, less amount of virus to get individuals sick,” said Doctor Saman Soleymani, co-founder of Avecina Medical.
He said his company’s staff is seeing record numbers at their six clinics in Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties. On Monday, he said, more than four out of 10 people who take COVID-19 tests are positive, showing that the omicron variant is extremely contagious.
“We know that vaccination isn’t 100% successful preventing you from catching the virus or passing it along,” Soleymani said. “So the best thing to do is to test, so if you test someone and identify them early, then those individuals can remove themselves from the population.”
He also said he’s seeing cases of reinfection, where people who’ve recovered from the coronavirus are getting it again. However, he noted with his patients, deaths and serious illnesses are low.
The good news is early research suggests omicron may cause milder illnesses than past strains, like the first generation and the delta variant. Kantor said he’s seen the omicron variant present itself with mild symptoms like those of a cold.
“There are a couple of things that are feeding into the mildness of the symptoms of omicron. Right, there’s one factor, which is potentially that the virus itself, for a lot of people, may lead to more mild symptoms,” Kantor said. “The other is that so many people have either been vaccinated or been infected in the past that these are all breakthrough infections, and typically breakthrough infections, in general, are going to be milder.”
Soleymani said people need to be extra careful to not spread the coronavirus. They should isolate at the first sign of symptoms and schedule a test as soon as possible. He said that will cut down on community spread.
“I feel like this is going to be just like last year,” Soleymani noted. “Holidays, people getting together, New Year’s — there’s always some lag, and those people that are getting infected are going to pass it along to other people.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, applauded the CDC’s new isolation guidelines. But also said the U.S. should consider a vaccination requirement for getting on domestic flights.
He does NOT see that happening in the near future.
“Right now, I don’t think people should expect that we are gonna have a requirement in domestic flights for people to be vaccinated. When I was asked that question, I gave an honest, honest answer. It’s on the table and we consider it, but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen,” Fauci said.
Masks are still required on all flights. The testing site at Neptune Beach is open through 3 p.m. unless it reaches full capacity.
