Michiganders waiting longer, paying more for COVID tests

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Michigan set a new record high number of new daily COVID cases at a time when people are waiting hours or paying more, to get tested.

Jan. 5, 2022: Michigan COVID cases up to 1,595,919 and 27,563 deaths

It has some people afraid of what this means in the coming weeks.

“I feel like honestly, we are heading towards another shutdown,” said Nikki Bartram.

Bartram is one of many people in Mid-Michigan who struggled to find a COVID test when she first got sick.

“I don’t have time to go to urgent care, I don’t have time to sit in those lines. right now they are insane,” said Bartram.

Wednesday, Lansing Urgent Care’s website showed people had to wait several hours at all of its locations.

The one at Frandor was the busiest, with the wait more than 13 hours at one point.

Down the street at the Sparrow testing site, they are set new records with more than 1100 people getting a COVID test Tuesday.

Sparrow lab director Jon Baker said they’re ready for it.

“We really did have all hands on deck and we’re going to keep doing that to keep moving things along as quickly as we can,” said Baker.

As the lines at testing sites get even longer, the price of at-home tests is going up.

The agreement Walmart and Kroger had with the federal government to keep the price of testing kits low ended last month. Both have since raised the price.

“All I can see is the price of everything to take care of COVID and try and get it better is going up,” said Bartram.

Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said some people might make things worse by testing too much.

“If you are testing just because ‘I was exposed, I was exposed, somebody told me I was exposed,’ and you’re just testing over and over again, that’s not necessarily the best place for a rapid test, that’s probably not the best use of a PCR test, especially in a shortage time,” Vail said.

Vail said if people also go to different testing sites, that could ease the lines.

More: Where to get COVID testing in Mid-Michigan

Copyright 2022 WILX. All rights reserved.

Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.