DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Health officials are preparing for more testing after the Thanksgiving holiday.
In DeKalb County, all three county testing sites transitioned to self-administered swabs. Previously, staff administered nasopharyngeal tests.
Dr. Sandra Elizabeth Ford, the district health director for DeKalb County, said the three testing sites in Atlanta, Doraville and Stonecrest do about 2,000 tests per day. During the week of Thanksgiving, the sites did around 2,500 tests per day.
Ford said the move to self-administered nasal swabs cuts down on the discomfort felt when staff conducted the test. She said it also cut down on manpower at testing sites, while maintaining similar accuracy in test results.
One man said he came to the Doraville site to get tested for the first time. He said he had spent time around large crowds over the Thanksgiving holiday. Another woman told 11Alive she had been tested twice before, but she had never taken a self-administered nasal swab test.
“I mean, it just lets me know I’m safe, my family’s safe," Miya Hill Keen said about getting tested. "I have elderly parents, young nieces and nephews. I'm just trying to keep myself safe as well as everyone around me.”
Ford said with the expected surge in coronavirus testing over the next few weeks leading into Christmas and New Year's Day, she felt concerned about potentially overburdening the testing system.
“This will be the test of the system, this week, to see what capacity we can manage," Ford said. "It could cause delays, and if it takes you a week-and-a-half to get your results, that's not helpful."
Ford said while DeKalb County was managing the current volume of testing, flu season could pose a challenge since it exhibits similar symptoms to coronavirus.
Ford said she was optimistic that the county will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. She said distribution was still in the planning stage, but health officials were waiting to learn how many doses they would get and which groups would have priority in getting access.