Are you able to get Covid rapid at home tests in your area?

[whitewave]

So I’ve been involved in the craziest thing…. In New Orleans, there is not a home test to be found, but where I live we have excess. I live in an area (mah rights) where people don’t believe in Covid and certainly won’t pay for at home test. Meanwhile, plenty people I know need them in the greater NOLA area and can’t get them.

I have been buying 5 at a time (the limit) and sending them down to NOLA and have been selling them at cost ($15.25) to those who need them. How pitiful is this? (Binax, 2 tests per box)

I’m about to go make another purchase run since my stash is depleted because of my new side job.

I was curious what the situation is by you and if you have noticed if home tests are available or not.

Oh, also, so many people are getting tested there that there is usually a 100 person wait for testing. One of my purchasers said her BIL had an appointment and when he got there, there were 60 ahead of him.

 

[Slickk]

Suburbs of NYC. Not a test to be found. Neither at-home tests nor appointments available at county or private sites for at least a week!!

 

[musicloveranthony]

There are no tests in our area until you drive way out to the parts of the state that don't believe in covid so don't get tested or vaccinated

 

[whitewave]

There are no tests in our area until you drive way out to the parts of the state that don't believe in covid so don't get tested or vaccinated

That is the part of my state I’m in. The last time I bought tests, there was a lady from Texas who was going to NOLA to visit her family and so she stopped specifically to buy tests for them. This is crazy!!!

 

[Austina]

We brought test kits with us when we moved here. In the UK the at home kits were free*, I'm pretty impressed with them, you have to swab the throat and nose.

You could get a box of 7 kits from any pharmacy by just asking.

(* I say 'free', but technically we paid for them with our taxes and NI contributions)

 

[missy]

Nope we cannot get any rapid tests here.
Jersey Shore.
And no appointments available either for testing.

But we don't go anywhere so we should be OK. LOL.

"They" say that rapid tests will be available come the new year. We shall see.

 

[bling_dream19]

Our community centers have walk up testing. I haven't tried to buy home kits yet.

 

[Tartansparkles]

Like @Austina our tests are free, we have school age kids so the school give testing kits to the kids to bring home. (Free testing kits are also available from pharmacies, supermarkets and by post however it was reported in the news today that demand is beginning to outstrip supply and that supply is 'patchy' in some areas.)

 

[Mreader]

None in the middle TN area

 

[MamaBee]

When the Omicron variant popped up I bought eight kits. A few days later it looked like it would be bad so I bought eight more kits. There were plenty at that point. Now there’s none to be found.

 

[dk168]

I get my free issued ones through the post normally; however, there is a shortage of tests due to the government advice to test before you go out and about or meet your loved ones.

Luckily, I ordered a pack of 7 just before the shortage kicked in, and that should last me for the next 3 weeks or so based on 2 tests a week.

Hopefully, the shortage will ease by then after the festive madness!

How long they will remain as free is anyone's guess!

DK

 

[whitewave]

When the Omicron variant popped up I bought eight kits. A few days later it looked like it would be bad so I bought eight more kits. There were plenty at that point. Now there’s none to be found.

That is why I am running out to get more. There are plenty as of 2 days ago but it might be demolished soon

 

[April20]

I saw them a couple weeks ago in stores but they're very hard to get here now.

 

[Lookinagain]

Nope, not in any stores here in the greater Boston area. I managed to buy a few online from CVS about 10 days ago when they must have gotten a small shipment (it wasn't there the day before, and it were all gone shortly after I ordered). There are no appointments for tests available at the pharmacies where you need an appointment. The places where you don't need an appointment have very long waits. I know someone who needed a follow up test to be able to return to work (she wasn't ever positive but a member of her household had been) and she waited almost 4 hours today to get a test at one of the drive-through testing sites where tests were free. If you go to an urgent care or other place where they take walk-ins but the tests aren't free, the lines are still really long, but not quite as long as the free testing sites.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

Mya school age children have gotten 10 tests each ro self test twice a week. I can buy up to 5 tests I. Pharmaciwa for about 6-6€ , but my sister who works for a big firm gets them at a huge discount and so has been so sweet to send us about 50 tests (ans other wonderful things from how since we haven't been able to see each other)
ETA: I'm France sister is in Germany

 

[whitewave]

OMG sams had about 75 tests 2 days ago and now they are all gone.

 

[House Cat]

I can’t find any in store but I ordered four Binaxnow sets from walgreens online.

 

[MamaBee]

I like the BinaxNOW kits..There are alternatives but they’re either too expensive or have bad reviews.

 

[MamaBee]

I can’t find any in store but I ordered four Binaxnow sets from walgreens online.

They’re sold out online. I’m trying to get some for my son and DIL..No luck so far.

 

[mom2dolls]

We are in So Cal and one Walgreens had some a few nights ago. Two kits per customer. A few hours later all gone. We can’t find them anywhere

 

[Tonks]

None here.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

im pretty sure we dont have them here in NZ
i work next door to a chemist, ill ask when im back at work after new year

i see very long quees of cars at testing sites on the news
like hours long
but last night they showed people in Aussie sleeping in their cars to get in line

@whitewave thats really helpful useful thing that you are doing, i hope for the sake of others, that you can keep it up

edited because sometimes i get whitewave and Austina mixed up

 

[whitewave]

They were sold out today in every place I tried

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

The kits are free here but it doesn't matter b/c they are all gone. When they first became available there were long line ups in frigid temps () and most pharmacies were out in no time. Gov't says we should be resupplied soon. Some good news tho, my sisters Pharmacist called her when they were restocked--dam good of her to do that!!! My sista got kits for whole family.

You can pay for a rapid test at many Pharmacies--up to $40 for this service.

cheers--Sharon

 

[OreoRosies86]

I bought three back in October when I suspected a winter Covid wave would hit

 

[RosieR]

Like @Austina our tests are free, we have school age kids so the school give testing kits to the kids to bring home. (Free testing kits are also available from pharmacies, supermarkets and by post however it was reported in the news today that demand is beginning to outstrip supply and that supply is 'patchy' in some areas.)

Definitely a patchy supply in my area

 

[dk168]

Definitely a patchy supply in my area

I just tried ordering online again and got the same message.

DK

 

[missy]

We got PCR tests in the mail yesterday. There was no charge. Every resident of NJ was able to get a free PCR test via mail.

From my understanding the rapid tests won't be available til mid January at least here. It wasn't on my radar so I didn't even attempt to get a rapid test til last week lol and obviously there were none to be had at that late date. In stores or online all sold out. Two years into the pandemic it is sad that we aren't better prepared still.

Stay safe everyone and keep those tests negative!

 

[lissyflo]

Definitely a patchy supply in my area

Have you tried a walk-in test centre in case they have any? We couldn’t get a box online in the week before Christmas and chemists were out of stock (even with the qr code from an online nhs request). We then tried a walk-in test site and were given two boxes. They have a formula for how many boxes they’ll give you based on age and the number of people in your household. Might be worth a try if you need some?

Edited to add: This was before Christmas when we were being told it was delivery capacity that was limiting availability, rather than a lack of the kits themselves. I hope that’s still the case now: schools have been handing children enough kits to do tests twice a week since September and they surely need the kits available to continue this programme in the new year!

 

[missy]

Europe too has a COVID testing crisis

Europe has been held up as a global model of COVID testing. The reality on the ground shows things are hardly running smoothly during the latest Omicron wave.

fortune.com

"​

Europe too has a COVID testing crisis, and a Christmas Omicron wave is making it worse​

BY
DAVID MEYER
,
VIVIENNE WALT
, AND
BERNHARD WARNER



Across much of Europe, public health officials are sounding the alarm: COVID testing kits are in short supply just as Omicron cases rise to near-record levels ahead of the Christmas holiday rush.


Long queues are beginning to form outside rapid-testing centers in Rome, Madrid and Milan. In Germany, consumer groups and employers are grumbling about a sudden spike in the price of testing kits (if they can even be obtained). And in some parts of France, appointments at a pharmacy for a COVID swab test are as hard to get as a restaurant reservation.
The surge in testing coincides with an ominous surge in Omicron cases.
According to the latest figures compiled by Our World in Data, France, Italy and the United Kingdom have seen a far bigger spike in testing than what's currently happening in the United States.

Here's what the COVID testing situation looks like across some European countries.

Italy​

Last year, nationwide lockdown measures meant Christmas was a relatively solitary affair for most Italians; families were split up, save for Zoom or FaceTime video calls. This year, Italians are free to move around the country. But in a nation with so many 80- and 90-year-olds—Italy consistently ranks near the top for life expectancy—Italians are taking extra precautions.
On Thursday, Omicron pushed Italy's COVID numbers over 45,000, a doubling in the past ten days. The effect can be seen at pharmacies and testing centers. Droves of Italians were getting tested in recent days before making the journey to the parents and grandparents' homes for a weekend of feasting on nonna's cooking. They're finding hours-long waits to get tested.
In Milan, the surge in demand led to a variety of tech glitches that exacerbated the waits. The hold-up got so bad at one point on Thursday that Roberto Carlo Rossi, president of a doctors union, told the Italian daily, La Stampa, "I am very worried about the situation of the swabs and the malfunction of the computer systems. The situation is unmanageable and can be seen from the long lines in front of pharmacies."
It wasn't just Milan. In a tweet that captured the mood of the nation, an Italian man sounded off that the queues at the pharmacy for a rapid antigen test were probably longer than those found at the fishmonger.


"We're going crazy," he grumbled.

Germany​

In Germany, where rapid antigen tests have been a way of life for most people throughout the year, there are few enormous queues outside the country's thousands of testing centers, and appointments remain freely available despite the recent introduction in many places of so-called 2G+ rules, which require even vaccinated and recovered people to get tested before entering shops.
Germany started offering free rapid tests to everyone in March, paying many pandemic-struck businesses who converted their premises into testing centers. In an attempt to discourage unvaccinated people who were using these free tests to access facilities, federal and state governments made a contentious decision in October to halt free testing. They partly reversed course within a month, allowing people to get tested for free at least once a week (the tests otherwise typically cost around €20.)
The story is not quite so rosy when it comes to the at-home rapid tests that people regularly use before meeting friends and family. In the summer, they were piled high everywhere, available for as little as $1 apiece. These days, they cost more in the $3-$5 range, hitting consumers and businesses alike. And earlier this month, with the fast-moving Omicron variant dominating headlines, many drugstores and grocery stores did start to report shortages.
Karl Lauterbach, Germany's bowtie-sporting new health minister, saidearlier this week that test manufacturers had assured him they were not finding a problem pumping out enough product, even though demand was high. He repeated the government's advice that people test themselves regularly around Christmas, ideally on consecutive days.

Handelsblatt reported Thursday that some companies were finding it more difficult than usual to source tests for their workers. Although major retailers such as the Edeka supermarket chain and the dm and Rossmann drugstore chains say they have plenty of stock, consumer advocates told the business daily that many people do not have reliable, cheap supplies.
The consumer advocates' complaints were not just about stock levels and price, but also about the quality of the tests themselves. There are reportedly more than 600 different rapid tests on the market in Germany, mostly from China, and fewer than half have been quality-assured by the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Germany's federal institute for vaccines and biomedicines.
"The consumer has no security when it comes to availability and reliability," Eugen Brysch, head of the Germany Foundation for Patient Protection, told Handelsblatt. Brysch also called for rapid tests to be given the highest classification for medical devices, to ensure the quality of what goes on shelves.

France​

With France on Thursday reporting more than 91,000 COVID-19 infectionsin a 24-hour period—a record for the pandemic—President Emmanuel Macron posted on his Instagram feed a video shot on his iPhone, appealing for caution over Christmas, and urging people to be tested. “Even if you’re vaccinated, test yourself or go get tested, to be certain you are not carrying the virus before you get together with your relatives, particularly if they are older,” he told them.
In fact, the French have been pouring into testing sites for days, as the Christmas vacation begins. About 6.2 million people—nearly 10% of the entire population—have been tested over the past week, according to government statistics on Friday—perhaps one reason, aside from Omicron’s transmission, for France’s record number of infections. Last week, several shopping centers began offering COVID-19 rapid tests to meet the huge demand.

Still the country’s network of pharmacies—a standard feature of every neighborhood in the country—have been overwhelmed with customers needing tests before Christmas. “To be honest, it is really complicated. The days are extremely long,” Paris pharmacist Mikhaël Habib said on BFM Television on Friday morning. “We are under huge pressure.”
The large number of self-administered rapid tests are not included in that official figure. Until a few days ago, many pharmacies still appeared to have plenty of tests, on sale for about five euros each. Fortune was able to buy 20 home tests last Saturday from two separate pharmacies in Paris, in preparation for a Christmas gathering. Now, there are signs in many pharmacy windows telling customers they have no more COVID-19 tests in stock. “Let me show you the shelf where the self-tests are normally kept,” pharmacist Marie-Claire Denoual in the city of Rennes, in western France, told a local reporter on Wednesday. “It has been empty for 15 days now.”
Appointments for PCR tests, given at laboratories across France, have been booked up for weeks for the days before Christmas. Testing tents set up on the sidewalks by pharmacies have seen some lines of people waiting, for the first time since they began appearing earlier this year. The results of the nasal swabs arrive within about 15 minutes in people’s smartphones, with a QR code that is then uploaded to a government app, and scanned at the doors of movie theaters, sporting arenas, and many restaurants. As of October, those rapid tests have been free, covered by public health insurance, for fully vaccinated people, and cost €25 for those are not vaccinated—yet another rule the government imposed, in order to push people to get jabbed.
For those testing positive—the highest daily number in France on Thursday since the pandemic hit nearly two years ago—there is a sense of resignation, and upturned plans.
“It was positive,” one man told BFM Television outside a pharmacy in Paris on Wednesday. “We’ll spend Christmas among ourselves, and we’ve cancelled our vacation.”


"

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