SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane's two mass testing sites opened today for their first day of operation in 2022. The threat of the Omicron variant and close of the holiday season had both sites experiencing long wait times due to increased demand.
The Spokane Regional Manager for Discovery Health said that they have seen double the amount of appointments when compared to demands before the holidays.
"We're asking for people to just be patient," Hailey Normandin said. "There's no cheating the wait, but we're working as quickly and as safely as we can."
Spokane Regional Health said they are looking to open more testing sites to help meet community demands.
A Spokane Regional Health public health nurse said they have been trying to open more sites even before Omicron made its way to the eastern side of the state.
"We've been trying to get additional testing capacity before we were even seeing Omicron, knowing that we were likely to have an increase in cases," Kira Lewis said. "And, unfortunately, we haven't been able to open up anything in time to meet the current need."
Spokane Regional Health offered rapid testing on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, but do not have any future plans to bring it back.
"Almost as soon as we offered those appointments, they filled up quick," Lewis said. "As of right now, we don't plan on doing rapid testing again."
Discovery's regional manager said if you plan on making an appointment over the next few weeks, prepare for long waits and arrive early.