Seeking COVID-19 test, many Long Islanders finding disappointment
Jackie Sanchez of Roosevelt says she's upset and frustrated, having tried again and again with no success to get herself tested for coronavirus.
So is Jim Silver of Bellmore, who has cancer but was still denied a test, despite having multiple symptoms.
Abigail Weinberg of Carle Place said she had to jump through hoop after hoop before being tested. One time, someone over the phone said she qualified, but she was denied when she got to the testing site.
Many Long Islanders have been going through long waits on the phone, mixed-up communications and many disappointments as they tried to get tested for COVID-19.
And they've been going through this while they were sick.
"They've dropped the ball," said an exasperated Silver, 59, who has a treatable but incurable form of lymphoma. "I know more people who are sick and have not been tested, than people who have been tested."
When Silver started coughing and feeling achy with tightness in his chest about two weeks ago, he called his doctor, who referred him to the state hotline. After being on hold with them for 45 minutes, he was disconnected, he said. From there he went to an urgent care clinic in Bellmore.
Jim Silver, 59, of Bellmore. After trying and trying, he has just given up on getting a test for coronavirus. Credit: Jim Silver
Not eligible, he said he was told, because he didn't have a fever. He said he never runs a fever, even when he's sick.
"Because I couldn't name an infected person I had direct contact with, I didn't qualify," he said.
Silver said he self-isolated and started feeling sicker. He struggled with whether he should tell people he felt he had the virus, since it might be like yelling fire in a movie theater.
"The pain in my arms and legs was terrible," he said. "I've felt pain. I've been through chemo. This was bad."
It was about then that the government set up the mobile testing site at Jones Beach. He said he called at 4 a.m. to make sure he got through on the phone; he was told he qualified and that someone would call him in a day with an appointment.
"Shockingly, the call never came," Silver said.
He has since given up even trying to get tested. He's feeling better and expects to be well in two or three days, he said.
"I'm getting better every day," said Silver, who noted he slept for two hours Friday afternoon. "But it's like a quarter inch a day that I improve."
Jackie Sanchez, 54, had been feeling chills and headaches when she hit a wall a week ago.
"I went to pick up my dog's toy, and my entire body went weak," she said. "I felt like I had a severe flu."
She said she had a "raging sore throat" and excessive sweating from her hands and feet.
"I felt like somebody was behind me hugging me with a cold blanket," said Sanchez who has a mild form of asthma.
When she called her doctor on Sunday, he told her she was among dozens of people calling him about the virus that weekend.
"He said he was so low on swabs he could only test people over 65," she said.
She also called private testing facility and they denied her a test because she didn't have a fever or a cough, she said. She dialed an urgent care in Freeport and it didn't even ring; it just clicked off, she said.
Through this past week, the symptoms kept up, she said. She lost her appetite and hasn't had the strength to cook. Some of the symptoms seem strange, she said.
"I couldn't spell 'Michael' yesterday," she said.
Sanchez said she has been self-isolating — "There's nothing out there I need that much" — and has been improving slowly. She said she was not even trying to get a test now.
On Friday, she did a little bit of laundry, but coming up the stairs her heart started hammering.
"I hope it's soon," she said of her recovery. "At this point I would say it's another solid week."
At first, it seemed certain that Abigail Weinberg would get tested. She dialed a call center, answered the questions and was told she met the criteria, she said.
That was March 12. The 28-year-old was told to go to an urgent care in Mineola, call from her car, and someone would come out with a mask for her and take her in, she said.
But when she got there, an urgent care worker told her the call center had the criteria wrong, she said. Because she hadn't been in direct contact with an infected person, she said she didn't qualify,
That evening she learned that a friend tested positive, so she had her email an image of the test results. Weinberg figured she was OK, but when she called the urgent care, the person asked if she was running a fever, she said.
"I said, 'No, I'm taking Tylenol,' " Weinberg said. Her fever was down to 99 degrees, but they told her it had to be higher than 100.4.
She called again the next morning, hoping to speak with a different person, and was told to come in, though there was no guarantee she would be swabbed. She asked if she had to call from the car when she got there and they said no, she recalled.
She got there, walked in, and was told she should have called from the car.
She was hustled into a room and a woman entered, covered in a mask, gown and gloves, and swabbed her — even though her temperature was only 99 degrees.
On March 16, she got the results: she was positive. By the middle of this week she said she was feeling fine. But the zigzagging path she took to get tested left her feeling frustrated, she said.
"I was getting more emotional than I usually get," she said. "I felt like I was getting lost in the shuffle."
Newsday wants to hear from Long Islanders who have tested positive for coronavirus. If you have a story to tell, please contact reporters Craig Schneider, Robert Brodsky and John Asbury at craig.schneider@newsday.com, robert.brodsky@newsday.com and john.asbury@newsday.com.
Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
