Before you head to a holiday gathering, it might be a good idea to take a COVID test.

But tests are getting harder to find.

“Right now in Michigan, we are having a large shortage, as they are across the entire nation, for the rapid test,” said Kris Tuchek.

She and Amber Sprague-Rice run Ouch Urgent Care in St. Johns, Michigan. Over the last year, they say they’ve completed over one million covid-19 tests for their community, but now demand is rising even higher.

“A lot of the government agencies, school agencies, large corporations started stockpiling a lot of the rapid tests faster than consumers, everyday users could get their hands on those tests,” said Tuchek.

“So our schools are starting to run out, to be able to do the testing that they were requiring and so then, of course, it’s going to fall back on the private sector,” said Sprague-Rice.

Sprague-Rice and Tuchek say they’re well-stocked, at least for now. Their clinic has a deal with a test supplier.

“They do tell us that stock is running low. But we don’t know, we don’t know when we will totally run out of tests as well,” said Tuchek.

So we checked for ourselves.

According to CVS.com, there are COVID tests available at some stores in most major U.S. cities, just maybe not the one down the street.

The challenge is in rural areas, where you may have to drive an hour or more to find a store with tests in stock.

“You’re going to see this happen for the next month, where everybody wants all these test kits because of the holiday season,” said Jack Buffington.

Buffington runs the supply chain program at the University of Denver. He says there are many aspects to this shortage, but one factor is key.

“Pretty much anything that’s related to medical supplies has had some, encountered some issue because these aren’t normal commodities. These have to be done in. You know this isn’t a plastic toy. This has to have certain levels of sanitation and safety unlike anything else,” he said.

Those factors, combined with labor shortages and delays in overseas shipping, could make this holiday season more difficult for families who want to celebrate together.

It will also be difficult for the doctors and nurses battling a surge in coronavirus cases.

“Our rates are very high, and so it’s looking a lot like last fall to us here in Michigan. Our rates are high, and in the rural areas, our vaccination rates are low, and so we are seeing people getting pretty sick,” said Sprague-Rice

LUDLOW, Ky. — Twice last basketball season, quarantine rules kept Kelly Gaiser's youngest son, Adam, away from Ludlow High School and teammates, even though he had no symptoms and no positive coronavirus test.

"When he's not playing, he's not happy," Gaiser said. "He misses his friends, you know. Even though they play online games and talk to their friends, it's still not that one-on-one interaction."

Four weeks into the new school year and coronavirus quarantines are still dominating what is, and isn't, going on in school, said Jason Steffen, Ludlow Schools director of teaching and learning.

"Students (are) struggling with social interactions and social cues and peer interactions we haven't seen before," he said.

That is why Steffen, a former principal in charge of district-wide learning, ordered four machines to speed up COVID-19 test-result turnaround times. Steffen hopes faster turnaround times will prevent students from going into lengthy quarantine periods.

He said while the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the district is small, current quarantine rules are keeping students and staff with close contacts home for a seven-day minimum . . . and that in turn is hurting student performance. And not just academically.

"They haven't tailed off and decline, but what they have is usually there is a trajectory of where students should be, and what we've seen is they're not hitting their trajectory targets of where they should be," Steffen said.

The issue of student performance and behavior is not a uniquely Ludlow problem, either.

"We thought for sure this was behind us and then we get hit with this variant, the delta variant," said Craig Hockenberry, Poland Local Schools superintendent.

In Ohio, districts as far north as Youngstown, where Poland schools are located, are looking to change rules with rapid test results.

Eight days into school, Hockenberry said 19 confirmed COVID-19 cases among students have forced 141 healthy children with no symptoms to miss 10 days of class. That, in turn, led to a mask mandate to make contact tracing easier.

"It's taking up all the administrators' time," Hockenberry said. "So, instead of leading and working on innovative ideas with instruction and working with kids, we're spending all of our time making sure kids aren't too close to others and calling their parents and having them come get them."

Based on guidance from the Northern Kentucky Health Department, Ludlow's new test-and-stay policy lets parents sign off on daily antigen testing for seven days for any student exposed to COVID-19 on campus.

Parents can bring results or let staff test on campus, according to the rules. Days one and five of school also demand testing to ensure accurate test results.

And as long as children test negative under the new system, they can go to class immediately and not miss a day of school.

Administrators such as Steffen hope the policy keeps more students in school.