Local health organizations make changes following decreased demand for COVID-19 testing
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Just before and soon after the holidays, the demand for COVID testing increased. At some points, many at-home rapid testing kits were not available.
Recently this has changed and demand for testing in Missouri has slightly decreased. Boone Health has recently announced they will shorten their hours at their 900 W. Nifong Blvd. location over the weekend.
The testing location will now be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday for testing and the site will remain open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
Boone Health said the week of Jan 17. , the first week of their Nifong Blvd operation, Boone Health said they administered 800 tests last week. However, Boone health says it currently averages about 70 patients per day the week of Jan 28th.
According to the state, there have been a total of 162,000 PCR tests and over 90,000 antigen tests administered in the past 7 days.
Eric Maze, spokesman for MU Health Care says it hasn’t made any adjustments due to the decrease but it has seen a change.
"We've seen about a 30 percent decrease in the number of tests administered over the past two weeks.Uh we were testing about 1,300 patients per day two weeks ago and we're testing on average about 930 patients per day this week, so we have seen a slight decrease," said Maze.
Erica Crane, co-owner of NextRx Pharmacy, says she noticed the biggest drop in people buying at-home tests in the last two days. She said she fully stocked with tests at her pharmacy and only sold at-home tests on Jan 28.
"I feel like there's diffidently less request and fewer people coming in for COVID test," said Crane.
If you do plan to go to Boone Health over the weekend to get tested, Boone health says patients will need to bring a photo ID and insurance card if they have it.
