MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – The most startling thing about some of the new coronavirus testing sites in South Florida?
The lack of lines.
New drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites on Miami Beach and in Hialeah’s Amelia Earhart Park are by appointment only, with those appointments spaced well apart.
The issue, Local 10 News has found, is making the appointments. For those eligible, with symptoms, the effort can be long and frustrating — at both the new and established testing locations.
“Thank you for holding,” one automated message read. “All of our agents are currently assisting other residents. Please stay on the line and the next available agent will assist you.”
The other issue is a backlog at the private labs, delaying results for days.
South Florida drive-thru sites are swab testing. The methods are expanding, though, at clinics, and even home visits, where they’re using blood and saliva to test the presence of antibodies.
“We want to make sure that we get as accurate results as possible,” said Dr. Alejandro Paya of Leon Medical Centers. “It may turn out to be that one particular test, as time goes on, we find it has more accurate results. But we also want timeline results.”
In other testing news, Miami-Dade County is about to launch an unprecedented field study of sorts — random testing of hundreds of volunteers around the county to get a clear picture of where COVID-19 exposure is located. It’s the kind of so-called surveillance that scientists say is the only way to get an accurate picture of the coronavirus spread.
The county will be launching that field study with 10,000 new blood tests.