Health departments and pharmacies that provide COVID-19 test kits may not have enough if the vaccine mandate goes into effect. Dallas County Community Health Administrator Abigail Chihak says 30 to 40 free COVID-19 test kids are flying out of the Dallas County Health Department every day. Right now, there are barely enough to cover testing people who have COVID-19 symptoms. That does not count the thousands who may soon want to take weekly COVID-19 tests to keep their jobs.”About 27 percent of folks are eligible for vaccinations but haven’t gotten vaccinated yet. So, we are looking at about 15,000 people. And our agency cannot supply tests for 15,000 people,” Chihak said.The situation is similar at places like the Medicap Pharmacy in Dallas Center.“We’ve had a lot of people calling us to get test kits, and we’ve had a really difficult time finding them,” said pharmacist Steve Schlafke. He is anticipating mandatory testing and says he’s trying to find COVID-19 test kits, but…“We were able to buy some from one wholesaler a couple of weeks ago. We got about a dozen of them. They were gone with 24 hours. And we’ve tried to reorder since that time and we can’t find any at all,” Schlafke said.Also, keep in mind that private COVID-19 tests are not cheap, costing anywhere from $20 to $200 per test. That’s a big consideration if you want to begin weekly testing instead of getting the vaccine.The Dallas County Health Department will continue to order test kits but will be used only for people who have COVID-19 symptoms.
Health departments and pharmacies that provide COVID-19 test kits may not have enough if the vaccine mandate goes into effect.
Dallas County Community Health Administrator Abigail Chihak says 30 to 40 free COVID-19 test kids are flying out of the Dallas County Health Department every day. Right now, there are barely enough to cover testing people who have COVID-19 symptoms. That does not count the thousands who may soon want to take weekly COVID-19 tests to keep their jobs.
“About 27 percent of folks are eligible for vaccinations but haven’t gotten vaccinated yet. So, we are looking at about 15,000 people. And our agency cannot supply tests for 15,000 people,” Chihak said.
The situation is similar at places like the Medicap Pharmacy in Dallas Center.
“We’ve had a lot of people calling us to get test kits, and we’ve had a really difficult time finding them,” said pharmacist Steve Schlafke.
He is anticipating mandatory testing and says he’s trying to find COVID-19 test kits, but…
“We were able to buy some from one wholesaler a couple of weeks ago. We got about a dozen of them. They were gone with 24 hours. And we’ve tried to reorder since that time and we can’t find any at all,” Schlafke said.
Also, keep in mind that private COVID-19 tests are not cheap, costing anywhere from $20 to $200 per test.
That’s a big consideration if you want to begin weekly testing instead of getting the vaccine.
The Dallas County Health Department will continue to order test kits but will be used only for people who have COVID-19 symptoms.
