The average turnaround time for COVID-19 nasal swab tests decreased from an average of 4 days in April to 2.7 days in September, according to the latest survey results of an ongoing national survey of attitudes about COVID-19. Despite the quicker testing speeds, the results are still too slow in most cases to support successful contact tracing.
The researchers, who surveyed over 52,300 respondents in July, August, and September, looked at over 8,800 who received a COVID-19 nasal swab test. They found only 56% of those who tested positive for the coronavirus reported being contacted by someone to trace people they had been physically near in the last week.