PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is continuing to disperse free at-home COVID-19 tests at vaccine clinics across the city.
The city will give away about 24,000 tests to city residents through Thursday, but demand is already high. At a vaccination site in Tacony Tuesday morning, the line for free take-home tests wrapped around the building more than an hour before doors even opened.
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Some masked Philadelphians said they were prepared to wait as long as they had to for a test — something Cathy hasn’t been able to get her hands on anywhere else.
“I couldn’t get one. I was sick about three weeks ago, very sick, I thought I had COVID again. I went to two different stores and they were totally out of it. They both said they were on backorder — everything is on backorder,” she said.
Worried about getting the virus again, she wants the tests to take as precautions.
“I was two weeks … with a fever for at least a week-and-a-half of that,” Cathy recalled of her bout with COVID-19. “And plus, the coughing was crazy. It was really bad. I wouldn’t want to have it again.”
Staff at the clinic will check for ZIP codes to make sure those getting a kit are city residents.
Click here for a full list of participating locations and dates.