As @azcentral has been reporting, coronavirus cases in Arizona are on a huge upward trend. Here is a story of what it’s like to try to get tested that suggests the actual number of cases in the state is even higher than it looks.

My wife is a healthcare professional, and she’s likely been exposed. Today she woke up with congestion and a sore throat. Ordinarily, she’d assume she’d caught a cold, but because of the pandemic she felt she should get tested before going back to the office.

Getting tested is not easy. We called drive-through sites and urgent cares. We were on long holds, told there were no appointments, and even when we found places with openings, we were told it’d be up to two weeks before we got results.

That means she would essentially find out if she had tested positive once the virus had finished running its course.

We’re lucky. I imagine plenty of people don’t have the time, resources, or job flexibility to find a testing site with openings, and then self-quarantine for up to two weeks while waiting for the results.

This isn’t meant as a knock on healthcare providers trying to meet skyrocketing demand for testing in the state. It is, however, a glaring illustration of the state's failure to prepare for what so many public health officials predicted.

And it suggests that, as bad as things look in Arizona, the reality is likely much, much worse.

As @kjzzphoenix reported, at yesterday's press conference, @DougDucey indicated he's taking the situation here much more seriously than he was before. That's a positive step, and should be acknowledged and appreciated. https://kjzz.org/content/1592974/gov-ducey-says-arizona-mayors-allowed-require-face-masks

But we all saw this spike coming, and yet here we are, obviously unprepared to meet the moment.