Statesboro site sees increase in COVID-19 testing

STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) - In Statesboro, testing sites have gotten busier as more people have gotten COVID while others worry whether or not they’ve been exposed.

If you ride by a drive through testing site in downtown Statesboro lately, it seems like there’s always at least one car in line. The ladies here say they’ve seen an increase in people getting tested. They say some have symptoms, but some are coming out of precaution.

Workers gathered info from people for COVID testing. They say the increase started right after the holidays.

This latest variant, omicron, with the symptoms of just a regular cold, that scares a lot of people. So, the numbers have gone up,” testing site worker, Charity Smith said.

And more of those tests come back positive, too. County leaders say they anticipated this increase with holiday travel and new variants.

“We’ve had about 400 new cases since Monday. We have not had any new deaths, thankfully. That’s a good thing. Hopefully, we’ve reached the peak and we can start going the other way soon,” Bulloch County Public Safety Director Ted Wynn said.

Smith urges people to take a few minutes online before they pull in the line and preregister for testing.

“If you’re not registered, we have to pull you through, pull you around, let you register, then come back through. It can be just a three minute process. But if you’re not registered, it’s going to take longer,” Smith sad.

She says they saw this line wrap for blocks back in the fall and down to just two or three in a whole day. She urges people, if they’re concerned they might be sick, come get tested. She says, “better safe than sorry.”

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