The average wait time for results of a coronavirus test has dropped to about three days, but that is still too slow to keep infected people from unknowingly spreading the virus, researchers report.
David L. Ryan/Boston Globe via Getty ImagesPeople wait in the shade while in line to get Covid-19 tests in Revere, MA.People are getting the results of coronavirus tests in the U.S. faster than they were in the spring, but testing still takes far too long to help effective disease control measures such as contact tracing and quarantining, according to the results of a large national survey.
The researchers surveyed 52,329 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in July, August and September as part of a series of ongoing surveys the team has been conducting since April. While that's an improvement, the turnaround time is still"too slow in most cases to support a successful strategy of contact tracing," and most people are still waiting far too long, the researchers wrote.
The average black respondent waited 4.4 days to receive results and the average Hispanic respondent waited 4.1 days. In comparison, white and Asian American respondents respectively waited an average of 3.5 and 3.6 days, the researchers found. In fact, only 56% of those who tested positive were contacted by a health worker to get contact tracing information, the researchers found.
It's not just delays in test results that are styming public health efforts. Many respondents report obstacles in getting tested to start with. Thirty-five percent of people in the August and September surveys had to wait at least three days between deciding to get a test and actually getting the test, the researchers found.
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