Virus-Test Stampede Bypasses 10,000 U.S. Urgent-Care Facilities

America’s Covid-19 testing push has relied on pharmacies, hospitals, state health departments and even grocery chains to accommodate the exploding demand.

One logical option hasn’t been tapped: the 10,000 urgent-care facilities spread across the country. They say that while they’ve stayed open for business and ready to test even as patient visits plunged during the lockdowns, they’ve largely been left out of the equation.

A medical worker performs a fingerprick test to screen for a prior Covid-19 infection.

Photographer: Gabriella N. Baez/Bloomberg

In the early stages of the pandemic, urgent-care clinics had little testing bandwidth. But after moving to close the shortfall, facilities now find the tests are piling up unused despite continuing U.S. efforts to expand ...