Long Lines, Technical Issues Reported At Miami Marine Stadium; Fort Lauderdale To Double Testing Capacity
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Long lines and technical issues greeted those wanting to be tested for COVID-19 at the newly-opened Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key on Tuesday morning.
Nurses were going from car to car letting people know that there were technical issues at the site and that is causing delays. Some are choosing to stay while others are leaving, according to CBS4's Brooke Shafer, who is at the site.
A woman had an appointment for 9:30 a.m. and she waited in line for two hours before she decided to just go home without a test.
"I lost two hours of my day here. I need to be working I need to be doing other things."
A man said he had been in line for three hours.
"I'm going some other place... It's their company. The manager is going to another site because they have the same issues."
"They said system error and if you want you can wait but there's no guarantee."
Technical issues had been resolved by noon.
Mayor Francis Suarez held a press conference at 12:30 p.m. regarding testing at the site.
The site is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 3501 Rickenbacker Causeway and the tests are free.
Drive-though and walk-up testing is available, and no appointment is necessary. While appointments are not necessary, individuals may choose to schedule one here.
For a list of COVID testing sites across South Florida, click here.
The city of Fort Lauderdale is opening a new testing site on Wednesday at Snyder park, once a chief vaccination site.
The site will offer free testing Monday thru Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It's drive-up or walk-up and will offer free rapid tests or PCR testing with results in 24 to 48 hours.
"By knowing if you are positive, this is an important factor in understanding how we are going to prevent the disease, " said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis.
Trantalis said starting they are doubling capacity for COVID-19 testing at Snyder Park.
The mayor said they would be able to provide 1,500 tests per day.