With a rapid rise in cases of COVID-19 due to the highly contagious omicron variant taking place right around Christmas, health officials are urging people to "use common sense" when it comes to holiday gatherings — especially if other guests are unvaccinated. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that it is “expecting a surge of COVID-19 cases in the coming days to weeks” as it monitors the omicron variant, which the organization expects to spread more easily than other variants of the virus that causes the disease.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases has spiked dramatically in the last few weeks in the Ledge Light Health District, doubling since the first week of November. The district comprises East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, Lyme, New London, North Stonington, Old Lyme, Stonington and Waterford.

Patrick McCormack, director of Uncas Health District — which serves Bozrah, Franklin, Griswold, Lebanon, Lisbon, Montville, Norwich, Preston, Salem, Sprague and Voluntown — said Tuesday that it’s a struggle to make sure there’s enough testing in the region right now.

“I know the lines have been very long at the state-supported sites,” he said. “I know people are getting frustrated. I understand they’re lining up more than an hour before the site opens, so there was a concern about traffic in the area.”

As of Wednesday, there have been 471,141 positive COVID-19 cases reported since the beginning of the pandemic across Connecticut. The daily test positivity rate is at 8.93%, the state reported.

During a Monday news conference, Gov. Ned Lamont urged people to “be cautious this holiday season.” He stressed that being fully vaccinated, including the booster shot, is the best option to prevent serious infection. 

According to state data, the risk of testing positive for COVID-19 is 5.5 times greater for the unvaccinated when compared to fully vaccinated persons, and the risk of dying from the disease is 20.1 times greater for the unvaccinated. 

Stephen Mansfield, director of the Ledge Light Health District, said that for those looking to ensure health and safety this season by getting tested before seeing friends and family, finding an available test may be more difficult than it has been in months. 

“It is absolutely more difficult now to get a test than it was more than a few weeks ago, so people should plan ahead,” he said.

On Wednesday, a weekly drive-thru testing site at Waterford Public Library had to turn people away because the line had gotten too long. Mansfield said the situation is illustrative of what's happening elsewhere in the state.

"It's not specific to the Waterford site, it's really happening statewide. We have four testing sites in our jurisdiction, and every week the requests for testing have gone up," he said. "The only time people are turned away from clinics is if they present a traffic hazard. If we set up at the Waterford Public Library and the line gets long enough that it backs out onto a public street, then people in charge of traffic control will wave people through to keep the site safe from a traffic perspective."

"Currently we're working with our partners at the state health department to either increase the number of locations or the hours for existing sites," Mansfield added. He said that this week, turning people away from testing sites "has not been uncommon, and unfortunately it will likely be common in the future. It's not a matter of resources in terms of test kits, it's just that the demand for testing has gone up exponentially in the past few weeks."

Ledge Light Health District is offering testing four days a week in different towns in the district, and Mansfield said that in the past few weeks, lines have been longer than they have been in quite a while, with wait times often surpassing an hour. 

With testing provider Sema4, which conducts testing at Dodd Stadium in Norwich four days a week, “deciding to stop testing services on January 15th,” as McCormack put it, “our hope is that this won’t create a gap in testing in our region because Sema4 tends to be the state provider within the eastern part of the state.”

“The state said (it's) working with other state-contracted vaccinators to see who may be able to provide additional testing within our part of the state,” he continued. “We’re very eagerly awaiting what the plan will be to cover these sites when Sema4 isn’t there any longer.”

There are currently seven COVID-19 testing sites in Norwich, with others in the vicinity, including in Jewett City and Griswold.

McCormack acknowledged state efforts to ease the testing burden by not enforcing testing requirements for certain state employees into early January. He also spoke of state plans to add testing sites. But he still expects high traffic for testing around the holidays.

“There’s such a desire for people to get tested for a variety of reasons right now that the sites are having a hard time keeping up,” he said.  

The state is aware of the dearth of testing sites in the area, McCormack said, as multiple health directors have expressed concern.

At a PhysicianOne site at 607 West Main St. in Norwich, medical assistant Letha Silva said wait times for walk-in appointments can range from two to four hours.

“We open at 8 a.m. — most of our clients are already in the parking lot waiting for us,” Silva said Tuesday. “Right now, it’s only noon, and we’re at a five-hour wait, so we had to cut our line for walk-ins.”

Appointment availability is thin at the site, she said. At the moment there are no appointments available until after Christmas. 

Silva has been working at this site for two years now and said traffic is as bad as when testing for COVID-19 first started. “There was a short period of time where we slowed down to a normal pace, but then this variant came out, and Thanksgiving happened, and we’re right back to where we started.”

The Ledge Light Health District is offering testing from 2 to 6 p.m. every Tuesday at the City of Groton Municipal Building; from 8 to 11 a.m. every Wednesday at the Waterford Public Library; from 3 to 6 p.m. every Thursday at Stonington Human Services; and from noon to 5 p.m. every Friday — except Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve — at the New London Senior Center. 

GoHealth Urgent Care at 351 N. Frontage Road in New London provides COVID-19 testing, but the facility is booked for appointments days out. Although it accept walk-ins, the walk-in schedule often fills up by lunchtime or earlier, with many patients waiting hours for their turn. 

The urgent care center has a notice on its website that says, “due to high patient volume we are experiencing longer than normal wait times.”

To help fit in more patients, the center is offering virtual visits for COVID-19 testing, where patients are seen by a physician through telehealth and then come in for a quick swab. 

PhysicianOne Urgent Care in Groton is offering similar virtual appointments as its walk-in slots have filled up day after day. 

At the Groton PhysicianOne site at 220 Route 12, wait times could be up to three hours, according to staff. As of Tuesday, there were no appointments available at the site until Christmas Eve.

Holiday plans?

Mansfield said he hopes people will “use common sense” when making their holiday plans and recognize the risk of gathering indoors with people who aren’t fully vaccinated. Ledge Light Health District, he said, is anticipating a spike in positive cases during and after the holidays as people gather indoors and travel. 

He said using common sense means taking fewer risks: limiting the size of parties and gatherings to smaller groups or people “in your circle”; wearing a mask whenever there’s doubt about your surroundings; being thoughtful about choices to socialize with unvaccinated people; and most importantly, being fully vaccinated yourself. 

Mansfield said that in his house, there's a policy: If you aren’t vaccinated, you aren’t welcome. 

“We have people in my household who are more susceptible to severe illness and everyone in my household is fully vaccinated,” he said. “If an unvaccinated person were to come over, not only are they putting themselves at risk, they’re putting our family members at risk. If we know you’re unvaccinated, we respectfully say that you aren’t welcome to come into our home during the holidays.”

But, he said, he recognizes that isn’t the decision everyone will make, and it’s a personal one.  

“The most important thing you can do is make sure that you are fully vaccinated going into the holiday season and then limit your social activities as much as is practical, keeping in mind that it’s very important that everybody enjoy the holidays and do what they would normally do with the people they normally interact with,” Mansfield said.

According to a recent poll of nearly 4,000 people by New York-based medical malpractice law firm Duffy & Duffy, 78% of respondents from Connecticut said they will consider not allowing unvaccinated guests to join family get-togethers this season. 

As for what the holidays will look like this year amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the state, McCormack said it depends on a person’s position. Someone who is vaccinated and has a booster may not wear a mask to the family party, whereas someone who is unvaccinated may. He suggested safe practices including getting vaccinated and a booster shot, as well as tested, before seeing people. 

His point: “It all depends on a person’s willingness to accept risk."

s.spinella@theday.com

t.hartz@theday.com