Residents lined up at Mount Pleasant Library on Wednesday morning to pick-up a rapid antigen test kit.

Amanda Michelle Gomez / DCist/WAMU

On Wednesday morning, residents across D.C. lined up early for the first day of rapid test distribution at D.C.’s public libraries. But many, it appears, arrived too early.

While the public libraries open at 10 a.m., the rapid test distribution isn’t slated to start until 12 p.m. — hours that DC Health did include on the material advertising the event. The program will give one public library in each ward 1,000 rapid test kits a day (although supply is expected to increase as the city receives more kits). Each resident is limited to taking two kits, on a first-come first serve basis. DC Health shares how many rapid tests are available at each library in real time on its website, as well as live inventory for PCR tests.

At Mount Pleasant Library, the queue had begun snaking around the building by 9:30 a.m. After the library opened at 10 a.m., staff informed residents waiting in line that they expected to receive the rapid tests at noon, per the city’s advertising.

Hernan Morales was one of those queued up at the Mount Pleasant Library. It took him three hours to get a PCR test earlier this week, he says, after several of his coworkers tested positive. He isn’t sure when he’ll get his results back, and he’s supposed to fly out to Atlanta to see family tomorrow morning — a trip he says he planned before he knew of the variant, and well before cases surged to record-breaking levels in recent days.

“I’m just frustrated … I don’t know who to be frustrated [with],” he said, waiting outside for his rapid test Wednesday morning. “Is it my coworkers? Well, I don’t know where they got it. They don’t know where they got it. Is it just poor planning for everything? I don’t know.”

Frustration — and confusion — seemed to the mood of the morning at the libraries across the city offering the rapid tests on Wednesday, where many residents seemingly misread the city’s hours for rapid test distribution.

Testing has been in high demand in the city for the past several days, as omicron spreads, cases surge, and the holiday weekend approaches. Purchasable at-home rapid tests are sold out in pharmacies across the area, and lines at D.C.’s fire station testing sites have grown long again. The at-home PCR tests, which are also distributed for free at libraries and recreation centers, have been disappearing almost as soon as they’re restocked.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden announced that the federal government would make as many as 500 million rapid tests kits available online to Americans who request one starting in January, but the president’s plan was slim on specifics. He defended his administration’s response to COVID, when asked what he would say to Americans who are waiting hours for a COVID test, two years into the pandemic.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Bowser said the city currently has 260,000 rapid tests on hand and has ordered in total 6 million more. The D.C. National Guard has been requested to assist with the distribution of D.C.’s test kits (the city is also calling on volunteers to help assemble the kits). Asked during the press conference if there were plans to send more staff to libraries to assist with the massive lines, Bowser said the city will send support as needed, and may consider adding more locations. She added that they are also thinking through delivery methods for seniors.

“We’re looking at some crowd control for the line,” Bowser said. “Based on the supply of the test, and as we get them we would of course want to spread out.”

Jackie, who showed up to Mount Pleasant Library on Wednesday morning, says that the confusion and frustration felt Wednesday speaks to the broader confusion and frustration of the current moment, as residents navigate yet another surge and calculate risk ahead of holiday gatherings. Jackie declined to provide her last name to protect her privacy.

“I think it just shows that there’s a lot of confusion regarding what you’re supposed to be doing during COVID,” Jackie says. “Even if you’re trying to do your best or being failed by health departments and city institutions that are supposed to be keeping us safe.”

In an email later to DCist/WAMU, she also noted that the hours of operation for D.C.’s rapid test kit pick-up (12 p.m. – 8 p.m. today) could exclude people who can’t afford to take off work to go pick-up a test. She noted that the line in Mount Pleasant was majority white, despite the large Latino community in Mount Pleasant and nearby Columbia Heights. (The Mt. Pleasant Library is Ward 1’s only pick-up location for the rapid tests).

By noon, the line at the Mount Pleasant library had stretched around the street. In Petworth, it allegedly stretched the length of a football field.

“It shows systematic failures — a line of all white and able bodied people lined up to get a limited supply of tests (even though there were no rapid almost everyone in line took two PCR tests),” she wrote. “I hope that as a community in these next treacherous weeks we look after those who need resources and think how we can help those who might not be able to take off work at 10 a.m. and then come back at 12 p.m. to get a rapid test.”

Update: By late afternoon, it appears lines had thinned, wait times decreased, and multiple locations still had rapid tests left. Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen reported no wait at the Watha T. Daniel Library in Shaw around 3:00 p.m. — a scene drastically different from the chaotic mess earlier that morning. Mount Pleasant and Woodbridge libraries also still had test available by the afternoon, despite a high-demand morning.

This post has been updated to include comments from Mayor Muriel Bowser during Wednesday’s press conference and information about live inventory at libraries. 

Filed Under: COVID, covid testing, dc health, rapid testing,