Two years ago the COVID-19 pandemic changed the entire world. It affected how school works, health precautions, jobs from home, and views on vaccination.

Due to recent surges of the pandemic, tests are becoming very difficult to get.

People are waiting in long lines, and thinking of what they’re supposed to do if they can’t get tested.

The recent difficulty to find tests has caused a panic in schools, offices, and all public spaces.

Many factors like the new strands such as Omicron, and people with important jobs like testers receiving positive tests, are contributing to the recent surges and the difficulties to get tested.

People trying to get a Polymerase Chain Reaction test, also known as PCR, have had to wait several hours.

“I remember being really bored while I was waiting for the test. I had to wait in my car for about five hours straight and I had to miss school because I was waiting so for my test.” sophomore Andrew Manoni said.

“After it was all finished I still had to wait around a week to even get my positive results. It greatly extended the the amount of days I had to wait around a week to even get my positive results. It greatly extended the amount of days I had to wait to go back to school. I tried to get a test that I could take at home and get results quickly but my mom and I couldn’t find any.” Manoni said.

Not only were the PCR tests hard to get, the convenient, rapid, at home tests were also difficult to obtain.

Stores such as CVS and Walgreens, across the city, were sold out for weeks and had to hang up signs outside so people spend time looking for a test.

“My dad had to drive all over the place just so that i could actually get tested. Most places he went to had a sign that said sold out. After he finally found a place it was nice because I got my results right aways. It still took a while for him to actually find a test,” sophomore Jaime Carranza shared.

Since it has become so difficult to get tests, people have been wondering what they are supposed to do if they have been exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms.

Many people have been quarantined because they have not been able to get a test to see their results.

Because of this many students and staff have been forced to stop going to school due to exposure to COVID-19.

Many students are missing classes, not only because people are getting COVID-19, but because of COVID-19 exposure. Those students have to quarantine and wait for a negative result to return to school.

There is now a new system for students to join a zoom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day they are quarantined to complete all their school work.

Although most teachers have been putting up assignments on Schoology for everybody at home with COVID-19, there are some things that just cant be done online.

Many assignments like labs are almost impossible to do from home.

There is also a difficulty of missing lectures and lessons as they were not all uploaded for those missing classes.

Because of this, students are falling behind on some information and not retaining the material that was given to them.

“I believe being given the freedom to not only keep up with assignments, but retain the material we are supposed to get from these assignments at home didn’t allow us to truly learn the content we were being taught even though the assignments may have been easy,” said sophomore David Montoya.

Though the system put in place may not be very efficient, it is still a chance given to the students to learn the material and be excused for their absences.