The average waiting time for receiving the results of a coronavirus or COVID-19 test for the non-priority patient in Arizona is currently seven days. But a few, like the graduate student named Elliot Truslow, were forced to wait for around a month to get to know whether they have contacted the virus.
"People are dying," Truslow said as reported by the CBS News. "The availability of thousands of tests is insignificant without the availability of prompt test results." Truslow, who is studying at the University of Arizona stated that they waited for 26 days to get their results. They got tested in mid-June at a local CVS Pharmacy after they attended a Black Lives Matter rally. The student called the wait 'unacceptable'.
COVID-19 Cases Spike in Arizona
The number of cases in Arizona took a sharp rise following a brief fall in the rate of confirmed cases. Tuesday witnessed 4,273 new cases of the virus being reported, just more than 3,500 hospitalizations and 92 deaths.
"In these extraordinary times, we need extraordinary solutions and we need to be able to do that quickly," the scientific medical director of Sonora Quest testing facility, Dr. Brian Koeneman, claimed. Sonora Quest is the largest testing facility in the state and is currently handling of Arizona's tests.
Coronavirus Crisis
"Our testing is up to about 6 to 7,000 tests a day," Koeneman mentioned. "We are working on being able to increase... up to 30 to 50,000 tests per day." Health experts are claiming that the US must test around four million people per day across all the states to get the virus outbreak under control.
As Arizona is currently grappling to build up the testing infrastructure for meeting the soaring demand, Koeneman mentions that the week-long wait time for the results is a problem.
The coronavirus outbreak has created a major stir around the world in recent times infecting more than 13.3 million people globally and claiming the lives of over 578,000 people worldwide in more than 170 nations. The US is the worst affected country due to the virus outbreak followed by Brazil and India.
