Charlotte sees dramatically shorter COVID-19 testing lines; NC positivity rate down

CHARLOTTE — A few weeks make a huge difference when it comes to COVID-19 testing sites in the Charlotte area.

Just a few weeks ago, the west Charlotte StarMed location on Tuckaseegee Road had a line that stretched all the way through the parking lot.

On Wednesday, the cones and barriers for the high traffic volumes were still in place, but the lines themselves were a much different story. Only a few people were waiting to be tested Wednesday morning.

“As fast as omicron came, it seems like it is going away,” StarMed CEO Dr. Mike Estramonte said.

StarMed CEO Dr. Mike Estramonte says over a 30 day period, StarMed performed more than 130,000 tests. Last year during that same period, only 60,000 tests. He hopes Mecklenburg County is turning a corner.

“If we are on the other side of this now, hopefully we don’t have another variant come along and we can get back some normalcy,” he said.

It wasn’t just StarMed with short lines.

Mako Medical’s test site in east Charlotte at the Park Expo Center looked deserted around 12:30 p.m.

A short time later, Channel 9 drove to Atrium’s testing site on Beam Road in southwest Charlotte and saw only a few test takers.

“As we are seeing some encouraging signs that the peak is behind us, it is expected the demand will drop off as well,” Mecklenburg County Health Director Dr. Raynard Washington said.

Health leaders say the drop in demand can be attributed to three things. At home tests are being used and are easier to acquire. Test sites are now widespread throughout the county. We counted at least 26 free sites open Wednesday.

Dr. Washington also says the high number of people who tested positive over the past two months plays a role as well.

“I think we’re seeing some of the impact of a lot of people have gotten COVID and we’re starting to have this trail off,” he said. “So the need is naturally going to start to taper off.”

The county says they will hand out more free at home COVID tests this Saturday. The giveaways will be at CPCC’s Harper Campus in southwest Charlotte and at North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville. Both events start at 10 a.m.

NC’s new COVID-19 data show downtick in the rate of people who tested positive

New data released by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday show a record amount of patients in the hospital with COVID-19.

According to the NCDHHS, 5,090 people were in the hospital Wednesday with the virus -- a small increase of 35 people since Tuesday. That makes it the highest number of people who have ever been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state. There were also 20,286 new cases in the state -- up from just over 13,000 reported Tuesday.

The rate of people who tested positive hit 32.4%, which is down from Tuesday’s 36.4%.

There have been 20,440 deaths in the state from the virus.

806 adult COVID-19 patients are in North Carolina ICUs right now, which is the fourth time in a week that more than 800 patients were in the ICU with COVID-19.

Taking a look at the 7-day rolling average, a statistic demonstrated by the yellow line in the graph below, it appears the total number of cases in the state are trending downward.

One statistic that explains the crowds we’ve seen at COVID-19 testing sites is the “Daily Testing Metrics” section of the NCDHHS dashboard. According the the data, North Carolina saw 12 days during the whole pandemic of more than 100,000 people getting tested each day. 11 of those days were in Jan. 2022 and the twelfth was on Dec. 30. The most recent data were released Jan. 25 and say 49,136 people got tested that day.

Mecklenburg County health leaders answer questions about omicron variant of COVID-19

Health officials held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to address questions surrounding the omicron variant and testing in Mecklenburg County.

They continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible, to stay home, and get tested if you are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, wear masks in indoor public settings, and avoid large indoor gatherings.

Mecklenburg County Health Director Dr. Raynard Washington also announced that they will continue to do contract tracing for high risk settings such as long term care facility, detention centers, shelters, and classrooms.

Novant Health Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Sid Fletcher said that over 93% of people in hospitals are unvaccinated or undervaccinated.

Dr. Fletcher also said we will see more variants and reducing the number of people who are unvaccinated can help combat this.

If you are unable to get tested, follow CDC guidance and quarantine if you might have been exposed and are unsure and isolate if you have been exposed or are sick.

(WATCH BELOW: States track patients who have COVID-19 and were admitted for other reasons)

States track patients who have COVID-19 and were admitted for other reasons

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