Rapid at-home COVID tests fly off Michigan store shelves as pandemic demand outpaces supply [Detroit Free Press]
Your nose is stuffy. Your throat is scratchy. And you feel like you could be coming down with something.
If this were 2019, you might have shrugged it off as fall allergies or a simple cold, taken some over-the-counter decongestants and carried on. If you felt really lousy, you might have gone to the doctor for a flu test.
But in 2021, those symptoms could also mean you have COVID-19. The only way to know for sure is to get tested.
At-home rapid tests are in short supply at locally owned independent drugstores, pharmacy chains and big-box stores across metro
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"We try to keep them in stock," said
On Friday, his store had a few of the BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests behind the pharmacy counter.
Most of the nearly two dozen pharmacies the
Large retailers like
Neither did Frank's Drugs in downtown
"They are very hard to get," said
The moment the store's lone pair of tests arrived several weeks ago, they were sold, she said.
"Our supplier said they could get some later this month," Miller said. "They said October, but it's October now."
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A few stores, like the Collie Drugs and the Kroger pharmacy on Mack in
Others, like the Rite Aid store on
The supply pinch is driven by a few factors, retailers said.
High demand is among them.
In
Students have returned to college campuses, many of which require weekly testing for those who haven't been fully vaccinated. There's more demand for tests among workers, too, whose employers may require them.
The supply was further tightened by a recent recall of the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test. The
And if President
More over-the-counter rapid tests are coming, said
The FDA approved a new at-home test earlier this month that could boost supply. It's called the Flowflex COVID-19 Home Test made by
In addition, Zients said the federal government has invested billions in purchase commitments so companies that make rapid coronavirus tests can increase production. The aim is to quadruple the supply of at-home rapid tests, he said.
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"That means we'll have available supply of 200 million rapid, at-home tests per month starting in December, with supply of tens of millions of additional tests coming on the market across the next few weeks," Zients said during a news conference earlier this month.
At the
But dozens of BinaxNOW tests were available Friday at the
For
More: 400
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CVS also is limiting sales of rapid antigen tests at its stores, telling the
"In addition, nearly 5,000
The home-testing supply crunch comes at a pivotal time: As the economy rebounds from pandemic malaise, the nation could be on the brink of what health officials say could be a harsh flu season.
"Last year, there were very few flu cases, largely because of masking and physical distancing and other prevention measures put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr.
"With modest flu virus activity since March of 2020,
"The symptoms of flu can often be similar to those ... with COVID-19, which can lead to additional needs for flu and COVID testing, and isolation for either of the diseases, especially in schools."
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Though very little flu activity has been detected in
Hospitals already are facing a staffing shortage, taxed by COVID-19 patients, along with people who put off treatment of chronic illnesses during the pandemic and are showing up in emergency departments more acutely ill.
"An increase in flu infections and flu severity could put an additional burden on our health care system and increased stress on our nation's health care workers," Walensky said, urging people to get flu vaccines along with coronavirus vaccines to reduce the risk of a so-called twindemic.
That's because people are returning to pre-pandemic levels of activity. Many have shed their masks and other mitigation measures, "and so they feel more comfortable going out and doing stuff," she said.
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"But, unfortunately, that means that flu can spread a lot more than it could when we were all sort of staying at home and really social distancing. So I do think that we may see the winter wave. The winter seasonality for flu might be coupled with a winter wave of COVID. We are on an increase now, and that could easily kind of merge into a holiday season wave.
"I think we're going to get hit with flu."
That, too, is likely to push up demand for coronavirus tests as people try to figure out which virus is causing their symptoms.
When people can't find rapid tests on store shelves, they're often driven to seek them out at urgent care centers and other testing sites to fill the gap.
That can be a more costly option — especially for people without health insurance.
At
He estimated about 60% of the patients treated at Beaumont's urgent care centers are coming for coronavirus tests, and can get results from a molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within hours.
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Even for people who are fully insured, there may now be some cost for coronavirus testing. The federal government requires insurance companies to fully cover testing for people who've been exposed to the virus and for those who are experiencing symptoms. But the insurers are not required to pay fully for routine testing for workplace or school protocols.
"Some insurance companies have pulled back and said, 'Well, we're gonna have to pass some of these costs on, you know?' Whether it's a copay or whether it's 50%, it varies by health insurer," Hughes said.
That's why Hughes recommends calling ahead to your insurance provider so you're aware of what it'll cost to have a coronavirus test at an urgent care center.
Another option is to seek out a free rapid antigen test available at pop-up sites operated by the state health department. Some upcoming clinics are planned at schools, restaurants and community health centers stretching from as far north as
The federal government also is working to increase access to free COVID-19 tests by expanding the number of sites where that service is available, Zients said, including at local pharmacies. There are now several hundred locations in
Even with more testing at pop-up clinics and drug stores, the demand for at-home antigen tests hasn't slowed, said
"Everybody's coming here, but we don't have them," she said. "We're not able to order them from our wholesaler. They just say no."
As for when — or if — rapid tests might be available to stock her store shelves, she said, is unclear: "They don't tell us anything."
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