You have to keep checking all these sites at random times, inventory pops up. I just checked Walmart and I could put Binax in my cart but it said there were only 7 left, so I am sure are gone now.
All of the tests out there detect omicron, the ones that didn’t got pulled. So if you can get any, great. The best performance is the Binax. BD Veritor, Lumira are also good. Cue Health is also good, but it’s expensive and you have to buy an adapter for the phone. It also has a high failure rate (20%), the company will send you a new one if it fails but you would have to wait and won’t get the results now.
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Ok…I’m going to speak up about testing. CT had a lot of large number of drive through testing sites in 2020. In addition, area health districts set up drive through testing sites. Most have been closed.
Why aren’t these being opened again.
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I was able to stockpile some Binax before the crushing hoards descended.
We also have had the CUE system for several months. Yes, it’s expensive but we’ve found it highly reliable. In addition, a proctored CUE test (via a subscription service*) qualifies for re-entry to the US. Could be very useful for frequent travelers.
- Only one person needs to subscribe to the service. They can then add profiles to their account. Anyone with a profile can then access the proctored testing. So if you have a family of 4 - one person pays the monthly fee and the rest run under the main account.
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I can’t answer your question, but wanted to post this with 275 locations for free PCR and/or antigen testing. Curiously there look like none in CT. https://www.centerforcovidcontrol.org/locations
Staffing? Only reason I can think of.
Yep…zero in CT.
In 2020, there were two large drive through locations for testing within a ten minute drive of my house…and I don’t live in a highly populated area of the state.
I think they closed them when they thought they didn’t or wouldn’t need them. And the area health districts just stopped doing them.
Really…drive through testing would be smart right now with how contagious this variant seems to be.
CT still had open testing sites as of a few days before Christmas. I sent a list of locations to my family as they live in all different areas around the state. There are a lot of sites. We arrived 45 min early and the line was already pretty long but we all got tested. They lost mine 
but I assumed negative since the rest of my household was negative. Pretty sure they are still open — the news was talking about one a couple of days ago being shut down bc someone brought a gun.
Also, I wanted to let people know about Evusheld. It’s a new monoclonal antibody and the technology is really remarkable. It prevents someone from getting Covid. It’s not post exposure prophylaxis, it’s pre-exposure. Take it and you will be protected from getting Covid for up to 6 months. It’s new and in extremely short supply. 2 dose infusion. It’s only for the highest risk: people who can’t get the vaccine (and in reality that’s very few) and people who are unable to mount an immune response to vaccination (transplant recipients for example). It’s really a remarkable development. I’m mentioning it in case anyone has friends or family with these conditions to let them know to ask for it.
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Where? Or where can I find a list? A friend needed a test for a kid…waited at the only place taking walk ins for four hours on Monday. Not a drive through.
I’d like to know where the drive through testing sites are….there are none near here.
I think these might be in your general area of the state. If I’m wrong I’ll try to find the others (it’s not super easy) ETA this lists all the state sites.
I popped into a Walgreens this morning and found a shelve full of tests. They limit customers to 4 boxes(2 tests per). You need to hit a few pharmacies right around their opening time and you’ll find some take home tests.
And now I’ve got friends sending me stories saying rapid tests aren’t accurate. Seems you need to use them every day to see a pattern and to catch the virus ASAP. 33 percent of symptomatic cases not caught. 67 percent of asymptotic cases not caught. Not many of us can get enough tests to be testing every day nor would we want to.
S19 was likely positive for his first two days of symptoms but negative rapid. This morning he took two tests and both were negative here on day six of symptoms (although he really feels almost 100 percent today). All we’ve confirmed is that he’s had Covid, which is good, but I don’t think we’ve managed to keep him from infecting anyone else necessarily since he was probably contagious before his positive rapid. If we don’t catch it, then I think we just lucked out and maybe got a little help from the booster.
Just makes me wonder what the point is for all of us trying to get rapid tests if they don’t pick up the infection early enough to guarantee the person isn’t shedding virus.
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Nope…the nearest one to here on that list is at least a 30 minute drive. And are those all drive through sites? I don’t think so. There are some that indicate “parking lot” but others that don’t.
Thank you for trying.
A friend who needed a test for her kid found only ONE place within an hour of here that was accepting walk ins. That is another issue. Next available appointments were late next week.
And if they are used for teachers, students, airline passengers, before a concert etc. etc. how much are the antigen tests preventing spread. is COVID only contagious when the antigen test is positive. meaning enough virus to trigger a positive and to spread to others?
AIso I understand it is a snapshot but how long a window of time does that snapshot cover? Apparently hours.
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I would use the rapid test before I go visit my mom or the grand baby. It would tell me if I am contagious on that day (to the extend it is accurate).
D1’s mother in law works at a special Ed place for ny state. She has been tested 2 to 3 times a week. She has been healthy so far.
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my brother is a kidney and Pancreas transplant recipiant. I just forwarded this to him
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The more I read this thread, the more blessed I feel to have so many resources nearby. Since the beginning, we have had a state run temporary outdoor site (tent) that does both rapid and PCR testing, as well as a county health department site, both within a few miles of my house.
Additionally, our governor just announced the state has opened two more regional sites, open seven days a week from 9-3, starting today. One of them is outside our local hospital which is only 15 minutes away. All of these places are open to walk-ins while two of them also take appointments.
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Which State is this…??
If you have no symptoms, that test really shouldn’t give you peace of mind with up to 67% inaccuracies (can still be contagious with a negative test result). And if you have symptoms, I wouldn’t visit a grandbaby anyway. So, to @homerdog’s point, what are the rapid tests actually doing for asymptomatic people, except maybe giving false confidence?
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