CHICAGO — Many COVID-19 testing sites in the city and suburbs are running out of supplies.
Some school districts, including District 300, have suspended their “test to stay” programs because of the high-demand.
“Due to a nationwide testing shortage, the district doesn’t have the tests to run the program at this time,” an email to parents said.
The owner of Skokie COVID said she never received an order of 1,000 rapid tests.
Chicago resident Mindy Swank said it’s been a nightmare to schedule a COVID-19 test.
“I didn’t get my PCR results for 8 days we went into a couple of places and waited for an hour,” Swank said.
The owner of Innovative Care in West Lakeview keeps a three-month supply of tests on hand — but said smaller sites who did not order in bulk before the omicron surge are now running out.
“The last week has been an intense amount of demand for COVID PCR and rapid tests we’ve seen demand go up by 150%,” Dr. Rahul Khare said.
Swank and her children got tested Friday after they’ve been back in school to be safe. She hopes things will level out soon.
“It was only really challenging this last month and hopefully as the numbers go back down,” Swank said. “I hope a couple of these places with the drive-thru will stay open regardless of availability because it’s really helpful to reduce your risk of going into the clinics.”