This is what it was like to wait 13 hours for virus test
Essay: Long lines, hot cars, an agonizing wait. I was there for it
Thirty minutes before the testing blitz was scheduled to begin, the line to get a free COVID-19 test was already a mile long.
After waiting an hour in their hot cars, people began walking to nearby fast-food restaurants.
Five hours in, some gave up and left. Others begged the workers for water, or for access to their bathroom. It was 104 degrees that day.
Six hours in, a woman got out of the car and ran across the street with children to put them in another car. As the car drove off with the kids, she got back in line.
The testing was scheduled from 6-11 a.m. June 20 at Desert West Park in Maryvale, a low-to-middleincome neighborhood in west Phoenix comprised mostly of Hispanic residents. It’s where I grew up and where my parents own their home.
I was among the 1,000 people who waited in their cars to get tested. I had taken my mother and got in line at 5:30 a.m. We got the nasal swabs 13 hours later.
Appointments had already filled up, so my mother and I woke up early to try to get a decent spot in line. When we arrived, there was already a long line of cars formed on 59th Avenue close to Thomas
Road, just over a mile from the testing site, on 66th Avenue and Encanto Boulevard.
People later reported that the line that morning wrapped west on Thomas Road.
What I saw was defeating.
People in other vehicles dropped off food, water and drinks to people waiting in line. Cars ahead of me waited hours only to eventually give up, Uturn out of the line and leave.
A man named Jason told me at about 5 p.m. that he had gotten in line at 6 a.m. He said he had a fever, muscle aches and a sore throat. His passenger, he said, had the same symptoms and had lost her sense of taste.
A man got out of his truck and told an organizer, “I don’t have water, I’m thirsty.”
We gave him some warm tea that we had not yet drunk.
“Thank you so much, how much do I owe you?” the man asked me. I told him he didn’t owe me anything. He said, “I’m so thirsty I’m shaking,” showing me his arm moving rapidly.
“What did we do to deserve this?” my mom asked me during the wait.
I didn’t know how to answer.
‘I feel so bad for people waiting so long’
No one expected this to turn into an all-day event, including the organizers, a spokesman said.
On Twitter, the criticism was swift — lawmakers and people across the country criticized the organizers for making people wait hours and Gov. Doug Ducey for not providing resources to an overlooked community.
A spokesman with Equality Health, a health care delivery system that put the event together along with Phoenix and Sonora Quest Laboratories, said they felt guilty. They are looking to make changes for this Saturday, when another blitz is scheduled.
“We made some adjustments as much as we could to get people processed,” said Tomás León, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at Equality Health. “But I felt so bad for people waiting for so long.”
Still, he said, their intent was heartfelt. Maryvale and other parts of west Phoenix have been overlooked. What happened on June 20 should serve as an example to city and state leaders of how much demand there is for medical need in that community, he said.
Arizona currently ranks 40th in the nation in testing according to ongoing research conducted by Johns Hopkins University.
The blitz was held in Maryvale’s 85035 zip code. With 160 COVID-19 cases per every 10,000 people, it’s among the highest infected areas in Phoenix, according to an analysis by The Arizona Republic using data from the Arizona Department of Health.
This zip code ranks fourth in the city and sixth in the county, according to The Republic analysis.
Equality Health said employees and volunteers at the Maryvale location tested more than 900 people that Saturday.
León said it was the largest testing blitz they’ve done, and he didn’t know of any other organization in the state that has reported conducting so many tests in one day.
It was also the first blitz in Maryvale, León said.
On Twitter, strangers and friends told me I should have gone to some other site, some pointing to Chandler or Mesa. They were able to get tested quickly, they said. There were no lines, they said.
I think those people missed the point. It’s not just about me.
What about the 900 people who needed or wanted to get tested? Or the unknown numbers who gave up and left? Are they all supposed to go to Chandler or Mesa to be treated? I’m certain that nobody got in that line thinking it was going to be a day-long ordeal.
The alternatives in Maryvale are limited.
There are no hospitals in that area. The urgent care and other locations in or near Maryvale that provide tests require health insurance or charge a fee.
The CVS and Walgreens that provide free testing were either booked up or are far from Maryvale.
For example, Walgreens’ website lists three locations in Arizona that provide the test. None of them are in Phoenix. CVS has eight locations across Phoenix. The ones on the west side are closer to Glendale than Maryvale.
A discouraging experience
It was a discouraging experience and one that I regret.
It took some convincing to get my mom, who works at a dry cleaner and has gone into work since the pandemic started, to agree to get tested. My dad, who also works as a dry cleaner, chose not to go.
Neither of them has health insurance or sick leave. Their hours have been reduced because of the coronavirus. They can’t afford a COVID-19 test on their own.
We got in line at about 5:30 a.m., thinking things would move quickly once the testing started. Instead, it took 13 hours. Organizers turned down over 100 cars that even after more than 13 hours they couldn’t get to.
My mom and I ended up being among the last people tested.
It was hot, we were hungry and sweaty, and we nearly ran out of gas twice. My hands were shaking from frustration and dehydration. We turned off the car for a couple of hours and suffered through the 104-degree heat to save gas.
My dad dropped off pizza, tea and plastic cups of ice. Hours later, he showed up with a red gallon container of gas because our car was running out.
‘We’re not being included as much as others’
Ashley Rios, 23, had registered her and her husband to get tested Saturday. She arrived at 5:30 a.m., saw the line of cars, and instead went back home.
She has some symptoms: Muscle aches, throat soreness and diarrhea. She has health insurance, but her husband doesn’t, which is why they went to seek a free test.
Discouraged by the line, they went to urgent care on the next day. Her insurance should cover her test fee, but her husband had to pay $150, she said. They were told they wouldn’t get their results for seven to 10 days.
Rios, who was raised in Phoenix after her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala and Mexico, questioned why Hispanic people have been overlooked during this pandemic.
“At this point, you have to be blind not to notice that,” she said. “You can tell that when it comes to our communities, we’re not being included as much as others.”
Juan Tena messaged me on Twitter to tell me that his grandmother, Alicia Saucedo, had a similar experience to mine.
Saucedo arrived at 5:30 a.m. hoping to be there early enough that she wouldn’t have to wait long in the heat. However, more than nine hours later, she still had not been seen.
“Having the heat/sun come down on (her) vehicle even though they had A/C, it began to make my grandma very ill,” Tena said. “She has preconditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. She had been having a very nasty cough along with other COVID symptoms.”
“She was able to withstand the wait only until 2 p.m.,” he said, at which point she exited the line and returned home, where she had to rest and hydrate.
Veronica Saucedo, 49, who had taken her mother, Alicia, said she was scared and had panicked.
“It was a terrible thing that even now I ask myself, ‘What if something bad happened and on one helped?’” she said.
‘We seem to get the end of the stick’
Hispanic, Black and Native American people, many of whom were part of Gov. Doug Ducey’s essential worker classification, have been among the hardest hit by COVID-19 nationwide.
And when resources are allocated, Hispanic people see little of them, said state Rep. Lorenzo Sierra, whose district includes Maryvale.
“I wish I could say that wasn’t the case,” he said. “But it just seems like, for whatever reason, we seem to get the end of the stick.”
For example, he said that Tolleson has a meatpacking plant. In other parts of the country, the plants have been hot spots for the virus.
Sierra said he wanted the state Department of Health to do a testing blitz