HOUSTON, Texas — As families get ready to spend the holiday weekend together, people concerned about COVID-19 are rushing to testing sites across the region.
Many of them were closed on Christmas Eve.
United Memorial Medical Center had three sites open across the city which saw huge lines.
Bianca Broughton stopped by the testing site in the 500 block of Tidwell Road.
She said, “We’re meeting up with family, so we’re just trying to make sure everything is good before then.”
She was one of many who sat in line waiting for a test.
Ana Guerra said, “Because my daughter has [tested] positive yesterday and I’m scared to be contagious.”
“I guess I’ve been around someone who had it, so I don’t really have any plans," said Crystian Munguia. "I’m getting tested because I don’t have no symptoms or nothing because I’m vaccinated, so I don’t have no symptoms, but again, you just never know. So I wanted to get tested and be safe rather than sorry.”
Zager Rubio said he already tested positive.
His fiancé Giovanna Barrera said, “I just want to make sure I’m ok. I don’t have any symptoms. The baby doesn’t have any symptoms but we just want to make sure.”
People waited more than two hours for a chance to get tested.
Broughton said, “It’s important just so we make sure we’re not spreading anything. I am vaccinated as well so I’m just trying to cover all bases.”
However, by 11 a.m. the Christmas Eve demand for tests was more than the site’s 550 daily test capacity. UMMC staff had to give the bad news to people who wanted to find out if they have COVID ahead of Christmas.
Many of them drove away looking for other options.
For those fortunate enough to get tested, it’s a small sense of relief as they wait for their results.