At-home Covid tests have been hard to come by in Arlington, but distributors are promising that more tests will be available soon.
Tests haven’t been available at many Arlington pick-up sites and stores for a number of days, but some could be available as soon as tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 8.
While this week’s winter weather delayed shipments earlier this week to local CVS stores, a spokesperson tells ARLnow that stores should expect deliveries of at-home Covid tests by Saturday.
The Virginia Department of Health shipped 1,400 at-home Covid test kits to Arlington libraries yesterday, a VDH spokesperson confirms to ARLnow. However, the kits, which will be distributed for free, haven’t arrived yet.
“We will distribute some time next week based on when we get them,” library deputy director Anne Gable said. She advised residents to keep checking Arlington Public Library’s website for updates.
The most recent distribution was Dec. 30, when seven Arlington libraries handed out 2,000 VDH-provided tests. The kits were gone within 20 minutes.
Giant Food stores are also expecting more supply by early next week, a company spokesperson tells us. Supply shortages, not the weather, were the cause of the delay at Giant stores.
“Our distributors were waiting on shipments to [be sent] to us,” the spokesperson says.
A Walgreens spokesperson declined to provide ARLnow an estimate on when at-home Covid test kits may once again be available at local stores. They did note the store’s four-item purchase limit on test kits and referred us to the manufacturers to ask about supply.
Harris Teeter hasn’t yet responded to ARLnow’s inquiry about Covid test kit availability.
In recent weeks, it’s been a struggle for many locals to get a Covid test, amid a surge in Covid cases and high positivity rates, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Since mid-December, meanwhile, long lines at county testing sites have been the norm.
This past week hasn’t seen much improvement in terms of access. A number of sites were closed due to the snow and Covid-related staffing shortages, while no new appointments were available online.
Starting Monday, a new testing site is set to open in North Arlington on the campus of Marymount University.