As Florida reopens, demand increases for COVID-19 testing in Manatee County
Two months after the return to classrooms in Manatee County for many students, teachers and staff, many have gotten a call alerting them that they’ve had a direct exposure to someone infected with the coronavirus.
Ellenton resident Angelica Lebron, a student, received that dreaded call this week.
The exposure prompted the 24-year-old mother to not only get herself tested but also her 4-year-old son, just in case she had exposed him.
“This is my fourth time” getting testing, Lebron said Friday nearing the testing site at Lincoln Park in Palmetto. “The other three times I was sick, so just to be safe.”
Lebron held her son, Ezekiel Rosales, as a nurse swabbed him for the virus. Afterwards, they walked away as she shared her pride of how well he had behaved during the test.
Ezekiel, smiled afterwards, saying he had only been a little nervous.
“I don’t think this is ever going to go away. I think everyone should come and get tested, even if they feel like they are just sick from the flu, just to be sure,” Lebron said.
A line of people waiting to be tested at the state-run walk-up facility at Lincoln Park grew on Friday morning. Despite the state moving into Phase 3 of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s reopening plan, demand for testing has started to increase again at the only state-run site left in Manatee County.
Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 15, there were 2,796 people were tested at the facility, which will soon be relocated to the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto. During the previous 14-day period, there were 2,199 people tested.
As of Friday, more than 12,300 people in Manatee County had tested positive for the coronavirus, and 317 people had died from COVID-19.
Despite re-openings or the messaging from the White House and governor, Floridians like Lebron are getting tested despite not feeling sick.
“With everything going on, I just wanted to make sure I was OK for my kids and my grandkids,” Arnold Brown said.
A driver for the U.S. Postal Service, Brown, 51, has been tested before.
“This is the third time since the whole thing started,” Brown said. “The first time, I was exposed and I was OK. Thank God. But now it’s just me being cautious because you never know.”
Brown feels that the state should be doing more testing, not less.
“I think they should have ramped it up a long time ago and they are not doing enough testing because by the time you take the test and get the results back, it’s far too long,” Brown said.
Testing site set to relocate
Meanwhile, the testing site has begun using a mobile testing vehicle ahead of a planned move, according to Manatee County Director of Public Safety Jacob Saur. A date for the move has not been decided but county officials have informed state officials that the move is necessary because construction of a planned pool at Lincoln Park is set to begin.
County officials have designated the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto for the testing site’s new location.
The mobile testing vehicle, also known as a Aardvark Mobile Health Testing Truck, provides a different testing experience. After checking in a nearby tent, those getting testing step up to a window on the side of the truck, where a nurse is standing inside and administers the swab by sticking her arms through rubber gloves that hang out of the window.
The nursing staff has no direct contact with the person being testing.
This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 7:45 AM.
