Long lines for Covid-19 testing in El Paso during the holidays

EL PASO, Texas – Lines at Covid testing sites around the Borderland are longer than usual this time of year. El Pasoans are left to wait in line for sometimes hours before being seen. 

“We just got here at 11, my sister just took off, she waited 3 hours,obviously she got tested, and my brother in law yesterday, he had to wait 6 hours,” said Marlene Franco, who was waiting in line at the UTEP testing center. 

At Upper Valley Urgent Care Center, Physician Assistant Jose Rodriguez told ABC-7 that people were waiting close to 2 hours to get tested at the clinic. 

"There's usually 30 to 40 patients already there before we even open the door," said Rodriguez. 

He said it started to get busy after Thanksgiving and hasn't stopped. 

"We're having a lot of patients that are coming in to be tested because of the family gatherings they've been having," said Rodriguez. 

ABC-7 reached out to Exova Diagnostics, the lab responsible for processing all of the Covid-19 tests that are administered at the four El Paso city-run testing locations, to see if the influx is holding up test results. 

Blake Anderson, CEO of Exova, said that the lab is still able to process all test samples within a 24-hour period. 

Although he said the lab was prepared for the spike, in order for it to accommodate the influx of testing - staff was increased by 20 people.

Anderson said that a few weeks ago, they had been seeing about 700 to 800 test samples. But as of Wednesday, they had 4,000 come into the lab. 

Exova said in order to keep the result times on track, it's important to double check the data on your registration forms to make sure it's correct. 

The company said to make sure the first and last name are spelled correctly, as well as the date of birth and lastly, to include both email and phone number in case the lab needs to reach you.