DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – Testing sites across Northeast Florida reopened Monday after they were closed over the holiday weekend.
Before the holiday, the U.S. broke another record of new cases -- with more than two million.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates as many as 1 in 3 people in the U.S. has been infected. Doctors are concerned numbers will grow as adults return to work and students return to the classroom. To help stop the spread, the agency is looking to add a negative test along with its five-day isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus.
The new guidelines shortened the length of the isolation period from ten to five days for those infected with covid who don’t have symptoms. After the five days, individuals are asked to wear a mask when around others for another five days.
List: COVID-19 testing sites in Northeast Florida
According to the CDC, transmission generally happens one or two days before people start having symptoms and two to three days after.
Health officials were also concerned that the high number of people testing positive for coronavirus and being forced to isolate could cause major disruptions to the economy. Especially with essential workers.
Last week the Neptune Beach testing site had to temporarily turn people away to mitigate the long lines and not overwhelm the staff.
On Monday, a worker told News4Jax officers had to shut down the line around 6:45 a.m. because they were spilling out onto Atlantic Boulevard.
Due to the daily high volume of testing being requested by the community, the Neptune Beach testing site will be operating on a first come first serve basis and will be limiting the number of daily tests to 150 Rapids and 100 PCR tests per day.
— Telescope Health (@telescopehealth) January 3, 2022
The rise in the number of cases, especially during the holiday season, has led to many more people getting tested reported more than 75,900 new cases here in Florida.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said looking again, a negative test could be added to the five-day isolation recommendations.
“The only difficulty is, is that when you have so many, many cases, even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with Omicron than it is with Delta, there’s still the danger that you’re gonna have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the healthcare system,” Dr. Fauci said.
Just a couple of weeks ago the staff at the Neptune Beach testing site went from testing around 50 people each day to testing hundreds. The site is open until 3:00 p.m.
