JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville health officials are seeing a decrease in the number of COVID-19 tests given at their two locations: The Legends Center and Regency Square Mall.
Washington, incident commander for contact tracing and testing for the state department of health, said the number of tests is at pre-holiday numbers.
“Our Regency test site is doing about 1,500 to 1,700 on a daily basis and the Legends test site is doing roughly 300 to 400 on a daily basis," Washington said.
Washington said the sites last saw similar numbers during the months of August-October.
“Into November, December, and parts of January, Regency was upward of 3,000 and Legends was sometime over a 1,000 a day," Washington explained.
The reason for that influx is because those months include the holidays and big events. However, with Spring Break approaching, Washington expects the number of tests given to spike again.
“The other thing that we have noticed, and we’ve noticed this all along, is that people equate allergies to symptoms," Washington said.
With the increase in pollen count in Florida, Washington believes people sometimes confuse allergy and COVID symptoms.
“We would encourage people that if you have been in a large gathering, or around a large crowd and you start to have those symptoms, it is important to get tested," Washington said.
Those large crowds do not have to be strangers they can be family members too, according to Washington.