WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — It's a sight almost as if someone turned back time to spring of 2020: Cars inching forward in a line of waiting tail lights.
“The line is all the way back to the road," New Kent County resident Jimmy Adams said.
Thursday afternoon, Adams found himself in the same waiting game as many others, searching high and low for a rapid COVID test this holiday season.
“This variant has spread. As crazy as it’s going everybody is overwhelmed you just have to find a way to have some patience," Adams said.
Forty-five minutes away from his home, Adams found an appointment at Legacy Lab Services, an independent laboratory in Williamsburg.
“Phone calls getting on the internet started trying to get a test. Couldn’t find anything all the way from Richmond to here," Adams said.
But even for a 12 p.m. appointment, Adams found himself waiting among the row of cars outside the facility.
“It is unbelievable! I used to see it on the news, I'd say 'Surely it can’t be that busy.' But here we are days later," Dr. Crystal Crewe said, Director for Legacy Lab Services.
The lab-- run by BSN, RN Arleigh Hatcher and her mother Dr. Crewe-- has seen testing demand skyrocket in the last week. With a staff of less than ten people, the lab is used to accommodating between 50 and 75 tests per day. In the last week, those numbers have jumped to nearly 400.
Dr. Crewe says that testing supply isn't as much the issue at the moment, but that the bigger dilemma is where to put the people lining up around the block.
“You think it’s bad for us waiting in line," Adams said. "Imagine what it’s like for them [Legacy Lab] doing this eight hours a day.”
The latest data from the Virginia Department of Health shows the state is averaging more than 40-thousand COVID testing "encounters" per day.
Over the last seven days, Virginia has reached a nearly 20% positivity rate.