Reston Library Staff Hands Out Entire Allotment Of Antigen Self-Tests In 5 Minutes

RESTON, VA — It took only five minutes for Reston Regional Library staff to hand out all of the 300 free COVID-19 antigen self-tests it had received from the Fairfax County Health Department. This meant that most of the people who were standing in line at 10 a.m. went home empty-handed.

Fernando Espana of Reston was one of the people who received tests on Wednesday morning. He secured the first place in line by showing up at 8:45 a.m.

"I know that they're in high demand," he said, of the tests. "There's only a limited number, from what I read in the news, 300, so I wanted to make sure to be here first."

The rapid tests are made available through FCPL's participation in the Virginia Department of Health's Supporting Testing Access through Community Collaboration program. A limited number of free COVID-19 rapid antigen tests were distributed Wednesday at four of its regional branches. In addition to Reston, the other libraries were George Mason, Chantilly and Sherwood.

Behind Espana, a line of nearly 200 people stretched out of the library parking lot, down Bowman Towne Drive and along Explorer Street toward Reston Town Center.

Brett Gheen of Reston joined the very end of the line a few minutes before 10 a.m.

"There's a very large chance I will not get a test," he said. "It seems like a lot of folks in this line."

Related: COVID-19 Test Kits Available At 4 Fairfax County Library Branches

Gheen's family has been lucky so far during the pandemic. No one in his immediate family has gotten ill. He showed up on Wednesday because he has young children and wanted to make sure they were safe.

"When they're at school, when they're at day care, I want to make sure that if there is any callout from the school that there's been an illness or sickness, we want to make sure that they're safe with it," he said.

At 10 a.m., two library employees rolled out a bin containing 300 tests, which they then began to distribute. The maximum each person could take was four.

Five minutes later, one of the employees shouted that all 300 tests were gone.

As the line began to break up, a handful of people walked up to the library steps to investigate.

"We had 300 tests and they were gone in five minutes," a library employee told them. "If we had 1,000, they would've been gone in 10 minutes."

When asked if 1,000 had been available, the employee shook his head.