Diagnostic Center Says COVID-19 Tests Under High Demand, May Be Delays

As COVID-19 cases continue to go up in Oklahoma, so does the number of people that are getting tested.

Some people are worried about how long it takes to get their test results back.

The director at MCI Diagnostic Center said they test 300 to 500 people on average in their drive-thru a day, and they're urging people to just be patient.

Jerri Harjo had no idea COVID-19 would impact her daughter Rachel the way it did.

"Her lungs were working at 30 percent, she had to be admitted and put on oxygen," she said.

Rachel is only 37. Jerri said her daughter got a COVID-19 test at a Tulsa urgent care center on June 26, and then quarantined herself.

She didn't get her positive test results back until July 5. By then, Rachel had already been admitted to the hospital because she couldn't breathe.

"They said it could take 3 days and it could be 10," Jerri said.

Jerri said her concern is that people are spreading COVID-19 before they know they have a positive test.

 Colleen Payne-Nabors, the Director of Operations at MCI Diagnostic Center, a drive-through testing site in Tulsa, said all testing centers have an extreme demand and that is creating some delay in reporting.

"And the public doesn't understand the demand is so great," she said.

Payne-Nabors said a few weeks ago, they would only see one or two positive tests a day. Now that number can be 100 in a single day.

"The number of positives we're seeing is so much higher. It's unbelievable people are being not conscientious about this disease," she said.

She said it's important to continue to stay vigilant and just be patient.

MCI Diagnostic Center workers said they just received a machine that can check for test results in just 15 minutes and they will start using it soon.