Increased wait times for COVID-19 test results coincide with higher rates of infection among younger people
Increased wait times for COVID-19 test results coincide with higher rates of infection among younger people
Beckie Strum
1 hour ago
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The average New Yorker is now getting their
COVID-19 test results back in three days, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday, as the city works against a national “logjam” in diagnostic testing.
This week, test result time has started to “rapidly” decrease in
New York City, de Blasio said, though with the caveat that the data was preliminary. “Based on the latest information, the average — this is not everyone — but the average for test results is down to three days.”
That’s roughly twice as fast as the nation’s leading laboratories, which this month revised their expected turnaround times up to a week or more as cases surge across the country. Earlier this week, de Blasio said the national “logjam” had slowed down test results in New York, where some 40,000 people are tested everyday.
Potentially elongated wait times came at a moment when the virus is spreading fastest among young adults, a demographic that is more likely to be asymptomatic or only mildly ill, and who have shown to be more cavalier about social distancing and other precautions. Some of the most egregious examples of people flouting the mask mandates and distancing guidelines in New York City have been crowds of young adults around bars, restaurants and parks, particularly in Manhattan.
Total infections among 18-to-44-year-olds in New York City grew three times as fast as the infections among people 65 and older in the first two weeks of this month, according to data from the city’s health department. Hospitalizations among people 18 to 44 years old rose roughly twice as fast as those 65 and older during that timespan.