COVID testing rates drop as vaccine rates rise across Delco, Montco

COVID-19 vaccine rates may be rising, but testing rates, which boomed pre-vaccine, seem to be falling across parts of the Delaware Valley.

"If I did feel sick, I would go get tested," Terquan Watson stated.

It’s as simple as that for Watson. If a person doesn’t feel well, go get a COVID-19 test. No sugar coating.

Remember when that involved a wait time? Three days before Thanksgiving 2020, it took people hours to get a COVID-19 test at a Walgreen’s drive-thru in Wilmington. And, a similar story at the 15toKnow COVID-19 Testing Center in Springfield in December.

But Tuesday? It’s quiet.

"There’s not that much testing voluntarily. Voluntarily testing going on 46 most of the testing that’s going on right now is being driven what they call suspected contact," CEO and Co-Founder of 15toKnow Mike Dershowitz.

Dershowitz says they have six sites from Cherry Hill to Harrisburg that have the ability to test 3,000 people a day, but they are only testing about 15 to 30 percent of that. Numbers he also attributes to vaccines, along with restriction rollbacks from the CDC.

"People are not paying attention as much to testing. In addition, I think a lot of organizations that were requiring it before backed off on those requirements," Dershowitz commented.

Numbers sent to FOX 29 show that Montgomery County tested more than 1,100 the last week of April.

The first week of May, that number dropped to 800.

In Delaware County, online data shows 300 negative tests May 14th

Delco, Chester County COVID testing numbers May 14.

less than half of that on the 15th

Delco, Chester County COVID testing numbers May 15.

and only 59 on the 16th.

Delco, Chester County COVID testing numbers May 16.

Dershowitz says it’s not a concern, yet, but people need to get vaccinated.

"For parents with kids below 12-years-old, we’re still, kind of, in the danger zone. Until we reach herd immunity, we really are not entirely safe," Dershowitz explained.

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