HOUSTON — With more COVID-19 testing mega sites now up and running, things are starting to improve.
The city's new mega site at Butler Stadium hit a minor power snag Wednesday morning. It delayed the opening a few hours, but by mid-morning, cars were moving and no appointments were needed.
"The process was really fast," Linda Garrett said. "You went through a maze and in two to three minutes, you're through."
In Harris County, cars were in line long before the county testing site at Katy Park even opened. Once they did, wait times were minimal.
At Minute Maid Park Lot C, the testing site that saw four to five-hour waits last week was a ghost town by comparison on Wednesday.
"I've been searching online at Walgreens and CVS, but their tests are backed up till next week," said one man who didn't want to be identified. "This was the only place I could find with multiple appointments."
Finding a test is only the first challenge. Getting results back quickly remains the bigger problem.
"The goal is to turn these results in 24 hours, but in some cases because of the number of tests done, it's taken three to five days," Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
The sheer number of tests conducted as of late, plus the holiday weekend, has slowed reporting results even more. Turner said new sites came online this week and they're operated by different vendors with their own labs. He said that should cut down on the turnaround time for people to get their results.
"When they're having to wait for three, four or five days, then these tests aren't as useful because you can't expect people to just wait around," Turner said.