BUFFALO, N.Y. — You've been asking us a lot of questions about COVID-19 tests. Tuesday, 2 On Your Side contacted Erie County, the New York State Department of Health, Quest Diagnostics, and Rite Aid.
We asked them seven questions including:
- Who is allowed to get a test?
- Do you need an appointment?
- Is there a long wait to get an appointment?
- How soon will you get your results?
- Is there a cost?
- How many tests are you doing a day?
- Why is the demand high right now?
We also requested Zoom interviews. While we didn't get any Zoom interviews, Erie County answered every question — specifically for Erie County Department of Health sites.
Any Erie County resident who is symptomatic, or a close contact or household contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case, can get tested at a county site. You have to have an appointment.
As for the wait, that depends. They've been scheduling appointments a few days out. The turnaround time for results depends on which test you get. If you go to a drive-thru site, you'll get a call within three to five days. If you get tested at a rapid testing site, you'll get your results in 15 to 20 minutes. There is no charge. Erie County labs are doing about 1,500 tests a week.
Finally, why is the demand high right now? Erie County says more people are sick and symptomatic. And, with more cases, more people are being contacted by contact-tracers to quarantine and get tested. Erie County recommends a test five to seven days after your last exposure.
Quest told us that it doesn't run individual testing sites and defers to the organizations running them for who is allowed to get tested or how to get an appointment. We followed up by asking if there are any of those sites in Western New York, and didn't hear back by our deadline.
Quest didn't address how long you have to wait for an appointment, but did say demand is up because of a surge in cases, and because of that, test results are delayed with an average turnaround time of about two to three days for all patients and two days for priority patients. Quest didn't address cost or the number of tests done each day in Western New York.
New York State has two drive-thru testing sites in Western New York — one in Buffalo and one in Niagara County. You have to have an appointment, and when you get there you just show your I.D. The wait time for an appointment varies, and the state hasn't heard of long wait times here for its testing sites. The turnaround for results is about three days, it's free to get tested at a state site, and on Tuesday, they had about 1,000 appointments booked. The state says demand is increasing with awareness.
2 On Your Side did not hear back from Rite Aid by our deadline.
Nearly 54,000 tests were done in Erie County last week, and the four test providers we checked-in with on Tuesday aren't the only ones in Western New York. There's a map showing all of the testing sites in Erie County with how much each test costs, how to make an appointment if you need one, and the turnaround times if you'd like more information.