Frustration Grows As Long Lines Persist At COVID Testing Centers In New Jersey
UNION, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The growing demand for COVID tests in New Jersey is leading to long lines in parking lots.
It comes as the number of infections is rising, CBS2's Kevin Rincon reported Monday.
Testing was a major problem at the height of the pandemic.
Those issues are popping up again with a record number of new cases. But instead of lines out the door, people are waiting in cars this time around.
Packed parking lots, like one at a CityMD in Union were filled with people patiently waiting to find out if they're sick.
"There's about 200 people in front of me," said Laurelle Milligan.
The demand is frustrating. Another woman waited five hours before giving up.
"I'm supposed to be at work at 9:00. I changed my hours. Now I'm here and they don't give me the test," she said.
New Jersey is seeing a positivity rate of over 12%, including 7,200 new cases over the last 24 hours. Gov. Phil Murphy said the tools for fighting back remain the same.
Watch Gov. Murphy's Monday COVID Update
"Getting vaxxed, getting boosted, wearing [masks] when you're inside, and then somehow finding ways to increase the distance between people or among people," Murphy said. "We currently have over 100 free and public testing sites throughout the state."
New Jersey is partnering with Vault Health, a company that will ship at-home PCR tests to residents for free.
"We make it simple to get an at-home test that you can spit in a tube and literally send back by UPS to the lab overnight and get your results in 24 hours," said Vault Health CEO Jason Feldman.
Feldman said the company is prepared to handle upwards of a million tests per day, at a time when COVID is seemingly everywhere.
"We are seeing these massive lines because almost everybody knows somebody who's gotten sick in the last few weeks," Feldman said.
While case numbers are sky high, hospitalizations and deaths remain low. There hasn't been a single death in New Jersey among people experiencing a breakthrough COVID case since Thanksgiving.
CBS2's Kevin Rincon contributed to this report.