Long Lines Greet Hundreds Seeking COVID Take-Home Test Kits In Broward
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Take-home COVID tests were distributed again Friday at eight Broward County libraries.
The lines were long and the testing kits were once again limited.
Still, people were in line before sunrise waiting to get them. Broward County Vice Mayor, Lamar Fisher says they're doing the best they can to help everyone have a safe and happy New Year's Eve.
"The seriousness of the spreading of this disease, Omicron, it's so vastly impacting everybody's lives. You know anybody and everybody has it right now," says Fisher.
Within the past two days, the county has distributed almost 150,000 take-home rapid tests.
"150,000 doesn't even dent the two million people that reside in Broward County. We're desperately trying to get the DOH to really step up and if they have those tests, get them to us to we can get them out to the public," says Fisher.
People were in line this morning before 4 a.m. at the Miramar Branch Library.
They waited six hours until the service lanes opened up, just to make sure they'd secure two take-home kits. With the surge in Omicron cases, people in line today told us, they want to make sure they get a negative result before ringing in the new year with friends and family.
"We thought it was a necessity for us to get those out to the public so they can have that opportunity to test and take appropriate actions if they're negative or positive," said Fisher.
Vice Mayor Fisher says they requested a total of 500,000 take-home testing kits from the Department of Health. No word yet on when the rest of them will show up. As soon as they do they'll be distributed in a similar fashion.