GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Local health leaders say the demand for testing has increased significantly within the last week.
“Our demand from early December through now is almost double than what it was earlier in December,” Bellin Health Clinical Operations Team Leader Jill Spejcher said.
Spejcher says Bellin conducted around 900 tests a day at the start of December.
Now, the health system is doing about 1700.
Dr. Mark Cockley with ThedaCare says the increased demand is a good thing.
“You know people getting together for the holidays and being exposed and possibly having some symptoms, the best thing to do is get tested to make sure you don’t have COVID,” Cockley said.
ThedaCare was able to secure extra test supplies to help meet the demand.
“That’s the big limiting factor everyone has is those test kits with the lab ability, with the supplies to be able to do the testing. So we were able to get more testing supplies which allows us to ramp up and open a couple more sites for testing,” Cockley said.
Bellin says testing can be taxing on staff members as well.
“There’s a lot of resources that go into testing and it’s not only at the testing site and actually collecting the test but it’s also processing the test in the lab and then it’s also the follow up so it’s pretty time consuming,” Spejcher said.
“Staffing is a limitation just like the resources for tests so getting those to match the supplies we have to provide the service throughout for testing is important,” Cockley said.
Both Bellin and ThedaCare say they are making adjustments so they can continue testing as many people as possible.
For additional resources about COVID testing, click here.
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