Appointment-only coronavirus testing websites open at 5 extra Delaware Walgreens Tuesday.
It may be simply in time, because the optimum window to be examined after a possible publicity on Thanksgiving begins. Public well being officers say the most effective time to be examined is 5 to seven days after gathering with others.
“Getting tested after an exposure is not a black-and-white phenomenon,” stated Dr. Rick Pescatore, chief doctor and affiliate state medical director on the state Division of Public Well being. “The farther out from your exposure that you’re tested, the more likely you are to have a true result—a true positive.”
Pescatore urges specifically those that took half in massive gatherings, akin to on the Christiana Mall on Black Friday, to get examined.
“Should you discovered your self in a kind of conditions, it’s comprehensible that you just may be at larger danger for having contracted COVID-19,” Pescatore stated. “If you were in a large gathering of people, either youramily members or people outside of your family, getting tested at one of our Walgreens, fixed infrastructure sites, or one of our Curative drive-throughs is something we highly recommend.”
The state Division of Well being and Social Providers introduced this weekend it’s capping the variety of individuals allowed to be seated in mall meals courts at 100, after seeing photos of crowds on the Christiana Mall meals courtroom Friday.
A publish by the Division of Well being and Social Providers Fb web page Saturday stated that “while the Christiana Mall food court may have been technically under” the 30 p.c capability restrict, well being officers have been involved concerning the quantity of individuals they noticed there.
Demand for COVID testing in Delaware surged forward of the vacation. Pescatore says extra individuals have been examined final week than in another a part of the pandemic.
Pescatore says testing demand stays excessive, and the state is working to accommodate it.
“I think that there’s always room to improve with testing,” he stated. “Extra testing, extra frequent testing and higher turnaround occasions, are one thing that we try for each single day.”
Pescatore says the state plans so as to add extra Walgreens testing websites in addition to “pilots that put entry to testing within the arms of major care medical doctors” in coming weeks.
