DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — UPDATE: There are long lines both at and leading into the test giveaway sites DeKalb County announced for Thursday morning.
As early as roughly 8 a.m. the county reported more than 250 cars in line at the South DeKalb Mall site where some of the 5,000 home tests are being given away today. And 11Alive Traffic Tracker Crash Clark reports lines now extending out of the mall parking lot and down Candler Road.
Finding an at-home COVID-19 rapid test is causing major headaches for many people in the metro Atlanta area. DeKalb County is hoping to solve that problem for thousands of residents by handing out test kits free of charge.
Long coronavirus testing lines have become the norm in Georgia, especially throughout much of the metro Atlanta area. According to DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, the county decided to take action after residents had a hard time finding tests or had to wait a long time to get one.
Thurmond said the county will give out 5,000 at-home tests to the community starting at 9 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 30 to alleviate that strain.
“We will be at three locations: Plaza Fiesta, North DeKalb Mall, and South DeKalb Mall because we are committed to helping our citizens and residents fight back against this insidious virus," Thurmond said.
“It was just the anxiety and fear and frustration that DeKalb County residents were experiencing at the test sites that we have extremely long lines, wait times, two, three hours," Thurmond said. "We knew that we had to intervene and try to mitigate the situation to help people at this critical time.”
People may need to prove DeKalb County residency, and each person can get one test.
“We can ask for ID or we can look at tags. If four people are in a car, each person will get a test, a rapid test," Thurmond said.