Cold forces reduced COVID testing hours, as Whatcom health department urges ‘stay home’
After announcing it was cutting hours at the drive-through COVID-19 testing site at the airport due to extreme cold and snowy weather, the Whatcom County Health Department advised residents to “stay home” and off the roads as cases surge in the area.
“Finding testing will continue to be challenging,” a health department news release Wednesday, Dec. 29, stated. “Please expect delays due to high demand and short supply of tests. Please be patient with staff, both those who are scheduling appointments and those who are at the testing site. They are doing their best in difficult circumstances.”
If you have an appointment at the airport site, Whatcom County in a release Thursday, Dec. 30, asked that you cancel your appointment at testdirectly.com/ and stay home, after the city of Bellingham and the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office asked everyone to stay off the roads on Thursday.
According to the Wednesday news release, the test site at Bellingham International Airport, which is operated in partnership with Northwest Laboratory, was to be open:
▪ 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday, and only people with existing test appointments during that time will be accepted. Travel appointments for Wednesday have been canceled and “those people will need to find alternate testing.”
▪ 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 30. Due to the weather forecast, all appointments between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. are canceled.
Northwest Laboratory will do its best to reschedule all tests that are needed for symptomatic residents or those who had close contact with someone with COVID-19, according to the release.
“These hours are subject to change, depending on weather conditions and staffing,” the release states. “The next available appointments are currently 6 to 7 days out, with further weather-related delays a possibility.”
The airport test site was already scheduled to close at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31, and be closed Saturday, Jan. 1, due to the New Year’s holiday.
Due to staff shortages, road and weather conditions, limited supply of rapid at-home tests and Whatcom County’s recent surge in cases, Wednesday’s health department release suggested:
▪ “Stay home, off the roads.”
▪ Assume you have COVID-19 if you experience COVID symptoms and isolate at home for five days. After the fifth day, if your symptoms have gone away, you may end isolation but should continue to wear a mask around others for another five days.
▪ Seek immediate medical attention if you have trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, confusion, bluish lips or face or any other severe symptoms that are concerning and warrant immediate medical attention.
“We are seeing a huge surge of COVID-19 cases right now, even with this week’s testing site closures,” Thursday’s release stated. “If you have COVID-19 symptoms or if you’ve been exposed to COVID-19, please assume that you are infected and stay home for 5 days. If you don’t have symptoms on day 5, wear a mask around others for another 5 days and keep monitoring for symptoms.
“We know that this is a challenging time for many people in our community. Please be patient and kind with testing site staff and schedulers, who are working very hard to get people in and tested.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 3:41 PM.
