Anchorage Health Department announces expansion of testing hours at "several" testing sites

The Anchorage Health Department (AHD) has been busily creating and deleting just awful videos from their Facebook page this week, but in a surprise turn of events, AHD published a video today featuring Health Director Joe Gerace that was mostly informative.

In the video (grab it while you can), Gerace said that as of today the city was expanding hours at several of the current COVID-19 testing sites and that additional drive up testing locations were due to come online although he did not indicate when those additional sites would become available.

Gerace also said that a few of the current testing sites will soon provide 24 hour testing but again, did not provide details about when residents could expect that to happen nor did he identify which testing sites would provide 24 hour testing.

Overall, the ability to get a COVID-19 test still stinks. Alaska Public Media reporter Wesley Early wrote on Twitter this afternoon that he waited roughly 3.5 hours in line to receive a PCR test. Others on social media have also groused that they too have experienced similar wait times at other locations in the Municipality.

Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Zink noted today that Omicron was indeed moving quickly in Alaska and that currently, hospital capacity remains stable. She said that while testing and treatment options have become more limited through the current COVID surge, Alaska DHSS was continuing to work with communities to improve access given limited supplies and an increase in demand.

The video released by the Anchorage Health Department about upcoming changes to testing in Anchorage can be found below.