The Department of Health and New Mexico’s medical community are working as hard as they can to test as many people as possible. The New Mexico Department of Health provided additional information in its statement to KRQE News 13 about COVID testing: Communications Consultant, Western Region, CVS Health Our lab partners are working hard to address this issue. Currently, due to these factors, it may take 6-10 days for people to receive their results and, in some instances, our lab partners may take even longer to return results. This has caused backlogs for our lab partners and is delaying their processing of patient samples. The increase in cases of COVID-19 in certain areas of the country is causing extremely high demand for tests across the board. Patient samples collected at CVS Health’s COVID-19 drive-thru testing sites are sent offsite to independent, third-party labs who are responsible for processing and delivering the results, which we then communicate to patients. A spokeswoman for CVS Health provided the following statement to KRQE: The Department of Health says those results can often take a lot longer to come back.ĬVS Health tells KRQE News 13 that due to increased demand, its clinics are often waiting an average of six to ten days before results come back. Some other urgent care and private businesses like CVS Pharmacy are also running tests. Presbyterian and the state’s DOH-operated test sites are usually turning results in one to three days. “When you couple that, it’s not just 500 cars, it’s 500 cars with four-plus people, and so it is amazing to see how the demand has just dramatically increased.” “A lot of the vehicles have more than four people in a car,” Frashier said. However, the healthcare provider also notes that demand is incredibly high right now and only so many health care workers can work on operating the sites. Meanwhile, Presbyterian’s says its working to get people through its Balloon Fiesta Park testing site faster with different line-up techniques and work on a new registration system. Vincent based in Santa Fe have “purchased and received high capacity testing machines so they can do their own testing of up to hundreds of samples at a time.” Department of Health spokesman David Morgan says Pathology Consultants and Christus St. The state says additional medical partners are beginning to start to run COVID-19 test samples in state. As of Monday, the Department of Health says its Public Health Division “is testing in more than 70 test sites in 26 counties.” 14 of those sites were listed in Albuquerque. In a statement sent to KRQE News 13 Monday, a spokesman for the Department of Health in part emphasizes that Bernalillo County has more just the two testing sites at Balloon Fiesta Park and EXPO New Mexico. The governor said, “We are working, I know (DOH Secretary Kathy Kunkel) is leading an effort to make sure that we have enough sites and enough personnel reduce to a great degree, the waiting time to get tested because we want to encourage New Mexicans to still get COVID-19 tests.” to 10 a.m.ĭemocrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham took note of the long testing lines during her last news conference nearly two weeks ago on July 9. That site has limited its testing hours from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., so patients are getting there early to get in line because they want to one, get through quickly, but they also just want to get tested.”Īnother key testing location run by the New Mexico Department of Health is at EXPO New Mexico near Central and Louisiana in Uptown Albuquerque. the night before to spend the night in line,” said Mechem Frashier, director of practice operations for urgent care at Presbyterian Medical Group. That test operation is run by Presbyterian Healthcare Services, which operates the site as a drive-thru clinic. In a video provided to KRQE News 13 Monday, one person waited more than five hours to get a test at Balloon Fiesta Park. in terms of how many tests it’s processing daily. New Mexico remains among the top states in the U.S. The early closure at Balloon Fiesta Park on Monday continues a pattern seen over the last roughly three weeks with at times more than 800 people being tested at the site each day. One of the state’s most popular test sites at Balloon Fiesta Park shut its gates early again on Monday to make sure those waiting in line could get tested within the site’s normal operating hours between 7 a.m.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The surge to get tested for coronavirus continues across Albuquerque, as some testing locations are still seeing patients waiting hours to get tested.

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