COVID-19 Testing - November 2020

For a variety of reasons, we decided to get some tests done on our family recently.  And, first the good news:  all the tests for our entire family came back the same:  negative.  No COVID-19 detected.  But, the experience was mixed.  First, the stress of trying to secure a test?  Unreal.  We're ten months into this thing and there's still a run on tests.  We were able to secure a series of tests mostly, I think due to persistence and luck.  I kept refreshing my browser and finally booked appointment windows.  

Ten months in, with cases hitting a high point right now.  And it is still tough to get tested?  That's more than shameful.  But, the news isn't all bad in terms of testing.  Why?  Because despite cases in Illinois hitting an all-time high and seemingly going higher every day (see chart below), the part of the testing process that worked WELL was post visit. 

Once I booked the appointment, the experience was easy.  Pull up, they swabbed my mouth/throat and six or seven hours later I received a notification in my inbox that told me this:  I was negative.  My test result is below:

Like I said, the bad was the availability of the tests.  The good?  How fast they told me what my results were.  The speed at which I received the result was great - and that feels like a very important part of the situation.  Getting tested and waiting days to know if I'm negative could have made me a spreader.  But, due to the speed, I was assured that I had nothing to worry about before I went to bed that evening.