At-home COVID-19 tests largely sold out across EBR as cases continue to rise

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - According to Walgreens, there are no at-home COVID tests in its stores in East Baton Rouge, Ascension, or Iberville Parishes.

At other pharmacies around Baton Rouge, you will be hard pressed to find any at-home COVID tests. Even online, CVS reports the tests are sold out.

Dr. Catherine O’Neal, the chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake, said the test shortage is coming at a critical time when COVID cases are on the rise in Louisiana.

According to O’Neal, OLOL’s COVID population doubled over the weekend. Currently, 35 patients have the virus. It is a number that is significantly lower than at the peak of the Delta variant. Still, she said that number is cause for concern, especially as easy, convenient at-home testing is getting harder to find.

“It’s really important that we have quick and available testing,” said O’Neal. “We have quick and available testing through the drive-throughs here at the medical center, but if you live in Mamou, Louisiana I don’t have quick and available testing, unless I go to the pharmacy to pick up some in-home tests.”

According to the Louisiana Department of Health, it is awaiting shipment of more at-home tests like the ones it gave out last Friday. A spokesman said there was no timeline on when those would be available.

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