CCCHD Health Commissioner Charles Patterson surveyed the line and saw it as a testament to the need in the community.
“We’re getting a heck of a response,” he said. “We’re expecting maybe a thousand people today.”
A number of local testing sights were taking two to three days to get people in and reached out to Patterson late last week for help. He tried to set up the clinic for Saturday and when that didn’t work out, Sunday was the option.
Patterson said with 23 COVID-related deaths in Clark County in November already, measures like this can only help, especially with holidays approaching, a critical time in curbing the spread.
“We’ll do what we need to do,” said Patterson. “We’re very concerned in Clark County. Those deaths are a tragedy we can’t reverse.”
There were three lanes for testing as the National Guard worked the cases. Having done tests in the rain, which also hit Sunday, they mentioned the wind was more of an annoyance than an issue.
Friends Teresa Newton and Kingsley Perry from Yellow Springs were the first in line, arriving at 10 a.m., not knowing the time the clinic opened, just that they needed to be there.
Newton was concerned as a friend of hers was exposed to someone who tested positive. Kingley joked he has to do what Newton has to.
“(COVID) is a terrible thing, but everybody here has been very nice, so it’s been worth it,” Newton said.
James Adkins stood out as the only person who showed up on a bicycle. Bundled against the elements, Adkins made a three-mile journey to get tested.
“It’s OK, my ride home is downhill,” he said, laughing.
Adkins doesn’t have insurance and appreciated there being no cost. He found out a co-worker tested positive and wanted to get tested for his family’s sake.
Emma Holder, also of Springfield, has seen her sister in the hospital, has a brother in a nursing home, and is around children working on a Springfield City Schools bus. Those factors all went into her being tested.
Children as young as a year-old could get tested and Kaelynne Tingley was as close as it gets. The tiny blonde whose second birthday is Monday fussed a bit getting swabbed but found comfort in her aunt’s arms, while her grandmother Betty Tingley was comforted by the testing availability.
“I got concerned. I wish everyone in our house would be tested,” she said.
Patterson said anyone who couldn’t make it may get tested at the CCCHD’s new testing site. Additional details on that site are expected this week. Meanwhile, he encourages people to continue masking up, washing up and social distancing, but also limiting contact with people not in their household.
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