State COVID Testing Sites Close for the Holiday, Struggle With Demand

Coloradans who want a free COVID test will likely have to wait until after the start of the new year. Most of the 150 state testing sites will be closed for a half-day on December 31 and closed altogether on January 1 because of the New Year's Day holiday.                                           

The state’s COVID testing website lists only four locations as open for a full day on December 31, all outside of metro Denver: the Aspen Airport, the Gypsum Sports Complex, the Mountain Family Health Center in Rifle and the Colorado Mountain College Edwards Campus. None are shown as open on January 1.

Even when operating at full hours, many of the state’s testing sites have been struggling to accommodate increased demand brought on by the holidays and the Omicron variant, which was officially detected in Colorado on December 17 and already accounts for over 90 percent of Colorado cases, according to state data. The state reported 6,949 positive tests on December 29, four more than the previous record set back in November 2020.

The Colorado State Joint Information Center says that the state is doing all it can to meet testing demand, including urging the vendors for its sites to increase capacity wherever possible. The state website lists all state-operated free testing sites, all Walgreens testing sites and information from select pharmacies. “We want to thank all Coloradans who are doing their part to slow the spread of disease transmission by getting tested and isolating if they are positive,” a center spokesperson says.

In a COVID update on December 29, Governor Jared Polis continued to urge Coloradans to get vaccinated, boosted and tested; he touted the state's 150 testing sites, but did not mention the New Year's closures. He also reported that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has updated guidelines that match new Centers for Disease Control recommendations, which reduce the suggested isolation time for people who test positive from ten days to five if they are asymptomatic. People who leave isolation on day five should then wear a mask around others for another five days.

The change reflects new information about when the majority of COVID transmissions occur and is targeted at helping the economy, according to Eric France, Colorado’s chief medical officer, who was with Polis at that announcement. “As we all know, we have staffing challenges across all areas of our economy, and having folks be able to return back to work because they are feeling better means that they are back helping all of us with the day-to-day work that needs to be done,” France said.

But a return to work could be delayed by slow test results, which are about 24 hours behind the usual schedule because of the holidays, pushing them to three days from what the Joint Information Center says is usually two.

According to the JIC, the best way to ensure that you can get a test is to register in advance — even though testing sites accommodate walk-ups. But if lines are long at the end of the day, sites sometimes stop accepting cars. And on December 30, Polis announced that 200 National Guard members will be deployed to multiple testing sites across the state starting on January 1; although the sites will be closed that day, they will get training.

"This additional support will help Coloradans access testing this holiday weekend by reducing wait times at major free community testing locations," the governor said.

Those relying on home testing are also running into trouble. The Walgreens website says that home COVID tests are out of stock, and Amazon lists the earliest available delivery date as January 7. Colorado offers to ship residents rapid home tests, but after you sign up, there is a 24-hour waiting period before you can officially order the kits, followed by a wait for shipping. As a result, you're not going to get those tests until 2022.

Happy new year....

This story has been updated to include information about the National Guard members being deployed to testing sites.