#Florida sees long lines for COVID-19 testing amid surge in cases

Floridians are waiting in line for hours to get tested for COVID-19, as the state grapples with record-breaking case numbers.

The line began forming around 6 a.m. Sunday at a drive-thru coronavirus testing site at Barnett Park — three hours before the Orange County facility opened, Spectrum News reported.

Hundreds of cars wrapped around the site, which has recently had to turn people away before its normal closing time because it’s reached capacity, the outlet reported.

“Constituents are struggling to get in & many can’t wait several hours for a test,” State Rep. Anna Eskamani wrote on Twitter.

Orange County resident Malcolm DeNeal said that he had come to get tested out of an abundance of caution.

“Earlier, everybody was wearing masks and everything,” DeNeal told Spectrum News. “Now people are just going about their business without masks and crammed in everywhere, so we’re worried. So, we’ve come to get tested.”

At another site in Broward County, people also braved long lines over the weekend to get swabbed.

“Thank God I feel good, but I wanted to come and get tested to see, and I hope, hopefully – I feel good, and I want to be negative,” Laura Jijon, who stood in line at the Boulevard Heights Community Center in Hollywood, told news station WSVN.

The long waits come as the state recorded 21,683 new cases on Saturday, its highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, health officials said.

The Sunshine State then broke a previous record for current hospitalizations on Sunday, with at least 10,207 people admitted with confirmed cases.

With Post wires