CINCINNATI —

The struggle is real for local families trying to feed their babies. Now scammers are preying on them online like Facebook and Craigslist, to try and trick families into buying formula and not receiving it.

Carol Claussen is a stay-at-home mother of three, most recently NICU twins. Staying away from scammers she spends her time searching store by store for baby formula.

"I put those orders in and loaded up my two babies and my 3-year-old and we went driving around and picked up this formula," Claussen said. “We spent the better part of our morning and afternoon just driving around the city and picking up formula."

Three hours, driving more than 70 miles and more than five stores. The twins are on a special formula for prematurity that takes more calories than regular store formula. The formula shortages now spilling over into non-similac brands.

“While that formula was not affected by the recall it was very hard to find. So we switched to just plain store brand formulas shouldn’t be anything difficult to find — but it is," she said.

Claussen normally goes through a tub and a half of formula in one feeding day. Now one tub must last two days for the twins.

“Obviously I don’t want to see the other moms struggling but it is so nice that when the world is going crazy that we as moms are coming together and really fighting for each other," Claussen said.

Abbott Nutrition has restarted production at the Michigan baby formula factory that has been closed for months due to contamination, the company said Saturday, taking a step toward easing a nationwide supply shortage expected to persist into the summer.

The February shutdown of the largest formula factory in the country led to the supply problems that have forced some parents to seek formula from food banks, friends and doctor's offices.

Video above: Get the Facts: Baby Formula Shortage

Abbott said it initially will prioritize production of its EleCare specialty formulas for infants with severe food allergies and digestive problems who have few other options for nutrition. The company said it will take about three weeks before new formula from the plant begins showing up on store shelves.

"We will ramp production as quickly as we can while meeting all requirements," Abbott said in a statement.

The plant's reopening is one of several federal actions that are expected to improve supplies in the weeks ahead. President Joe Biden's administration has eased import rules for foreign manufacturers, airlifted formula from Europe and invoked federal emergency rules to prioritize U.S. production.

Abbott closed the Sturgis, Michigan, factory in February after the Food and Drug Administration began investigating four bacterial infections among infants who consumed powdered formula from the plant. Two of the babies died. The company continues to state that its products have not been directly linked to the infections, which involved different bacterial strains.

FDA inspectors eventually uncovered a host of violations at the plant, including bacterial contamination, a leaky roof and lax safety protocols. The FDA has faced intense scrutiny for taking months to close the plant and then negotiate its reopening. Agency leaders recently told Congress they had to enter a legally binding agreement with Abbott to assure all the problems were fixed.

Abbott's February recall of several leading brands, including Similac, squeezed supplies that had already been strained by supply chain disruptions and stockpiling during COVID-19 shutdowns.

The shortage has been most dire for children with allergies, digestive problems and metabolic disorders who rely on specialty formulas. The Abbott factory is the only source of many of those products, providing nutrition to about 5,000 U.S. babies, according to federal officials.

Abbott is one of just four companies that produce about 90% of U.S. formula. The company's recalls and shutdown triggered a cascade of effects: Retailers have limited customer purchasing to conserve supplies and parents have been told to switch brands to whatever formula is in stock.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf recently told lawmakers it could be about two months before formula supplies return to normal levels. The agency has waived many of its regulatory requirements to accept more formula from the United Kingdom, Australia and other nations.

U.S. manufacturers, including Reckitt and Gerber, have also stepped up production, running plants 24/7 and sourcing more formula from alternate facilities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced earlier this week that they were again extending its waiver deadline for those in need of baby formula.

On Wednesday, the agency said the waivers made available through the federal WIC nutrition program would be extended through the end of the year.

The current waivers were set to expire on Sept. 30.

“USDA recognizes the flexibilities provided by these waivers remain necessary as we continue to pull every lever to address infant formula supply issues and provide certainty for families,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release. “We will continue to work all hands on deck to ensure families can access infant formula, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to get more safe formula on store shelves nationwide.”

The waiver program was first introduced in June to deal with the infant formula crisis.

The crisis began in February amid the coronavirus pandemic and then was exacerbated after Abbott announced a voluntary recall and then had to shut its Michigan factory due to contamination, the agency said.

The agency said close to 500 waivers have been issued to WIC state agencies.

The federal government is making it easier for farmers to grow food as the nation faces record inflation and supply chain issues.

The USDA is allowing farmers to insure a second crop planted and harvested on the same piece of land — a practice known as double or relay cropping.

One farmer in Iowa started planting a second crop back in 2016.

Until this week, it was illegal to insure his second crop — soybeans.

"That's why we have these meetings to help other farms understand what we're doing. That's why we push so hard with the insurance program. I went on my own without insurance. I could handle that, but I know for other farmers to transition they need that crutch," Loran Steinlage said.

The USDA said the goal is to help avoid a food shortage.

Watch the video above for the full story.

There is a national child care crisis, and programs are looking for ways to help alleviate some of the issues families are facing when trying to secure child care.

Some parents are needing to wait between nine and 12 months to secure a spot on a waiting list. To help solve this problem, programs are turning towards education for refugees and immigrants to add them into the workforce.

“As refugees and immigrants come into our economy, we want them to enter into jobs right way,” said Deborah Young, the co-founder of Pamoja Early Childhood Education. “There are 27,000 teachers that are missing, so this is a great match. We have a huge talent force, and we have a need for them.”

The Pamoja Early Childhood Education workforce program is made up of refugees and immigrants from all over the world to serve as a pipeline for new early childhood educators.

Fatima Jafari, who is from Afghanistan, is in the program.

“For two years, I have studied early childhood education, and I am working as a teacher in the center,” Jafari said. “The program is so important for all the women in my community. They come into the United States, and they need to learn to communicate with the children and how to live in the United States in a new environment. They also need to learn to grow their kids in a new country.”

According to Child care Aware of America research, it shows that nearly 9,000 daycares closed in 37 states between 2019 and 2021. While there are also less day cares, child care center costs increased across the country at an average rate of 41%.

For this reason, Pamoja Early Childhood is utilizing refugees and immigrants by not only giving them the education to start a new life in this country but to help decrease the childcare worker shortage and promote diverse people in the industry.

“We need childcare, and we don’t have enough childcare. We don’t have enough childcare workers, mostly because we do not give professional wages or living wages even,” Young said. “Really investing in our refugees and our immigrants to get higher education, to get the credentials and knowledge and get into the workforce, they’re contributing in one way or another to our society, let’s get them to contribute in ways that creates the whole increase in well-being for everybody in our communities.”

According to the CDC, 94% of childcare workers are female and 40% of those are people of color.

“Right now, almost two years ago, I started the study of the children,” Jafari said. “One of my children is a little bit delayed, but I just want to learn a lot about the behavior and learn about growing the brain for him. Also, I want to help others who have children like me, and I can help them.”

“We want childcare workers to speak the same language and look the same as the child,” Young said. “We want child identity to really be confident in who they are who their family are and what their background and historical context are. And most of the background of teachers and leadership positions look like me.”

The developers of this program believe that bringing in women of color who speak multiple languages can help provide more options for child care to the country and overcome cultural differences while also closing the work shortage gap.

Captain Dennis Tajer has taken to the skies as an airline pilot for over 20 years. He’s also the spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association and represents 15,000 American Airline pilots.

"This has been in the air for a long time and no one did anything about it," said Tajer.

He says the pandemic exacerbated a staffing problem carriers knew about by offering early retirements in what he calls a money-saving move and then failed to plan for a return to normal.

"They kept us from collapsing they weren't ready for the recovery," said Tajer.

Airlines were looking to save money during the 2020 pandemic shutdowns. The federal government stepped in with aid under the condition airlines couldn’t lay people off or furlough anyone.

"And then they took a hundred airplanes at American, and they retired them permanently. They didn't train pilots to go on new airplanes, and of those who retired, they did not train their replacements," said Tajer.

But things changed a year later as Americans started to travel again, and airlines added routes.

In 2021, the airline industry expected an increase of 42% in routes compared to 2019, according to data from Cirium Innovata a database tracking flight schedules across airlines.

More flights mean more pilots to get passengers to their destinations. But hiring more pilots doesn’t come without turbulence. In the past, airlines have turned to the Air Force as a pipeline to bring in pilots. But they’re also facing a shortage.

A congressional report in 2019 warned the Pentagon faced a shortfall of over 3,000 pilots, which it states has been "several years in the making."

"It was rare at the majors depending on the airline, to find someone who wasn't prior military. It was just the pipeline that was there everyone knew with the fall of the wall and the Soviet Union collapsing that the military wound down," said Tajer.

The FAA requires commercial pilots to log 1,500 flight hours for certification. And obtaining a commercial license after that isn’t cheap.

We looked at three different flight schools. A commercial pilot’s license price ranges between $30,000 to nearly $100,000.

"What young man or woman is thinking, 'Hey, I'm gonna go drop a $100,000, maybe make it, maybe not for a job that will come,'" Tajer said. "And go I'll be laid off, there will be bankruptcies, I'll be unemployed if you're looking at this as a business decision other than I just wanna fly what a horrid investment."

But some airlines are taking matters into their own hands. Phoenix-based Mesa Airlines recently purchased nearly 30 planes to help pilots build time toward their airline transport pilot license while trying to build a recruiting pipeline.

And American, United, Delta, Southwest, Frontier, and others are spearheading similar initiatives. Washington is also working toward a solution. In July, Republican Nebraska Senator, Deb Fischer, introduced the Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act. It would raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 — though pilots would only be allowed to fly within the U.S. — with a new emphasis on solving the issue.

Tajer believes it’s going to take time to get more new pilots in the cockpit.

"So, it's gonna take a while, and there's no magic switch. It takes a series of switches and everybody working together to get it done," said Tajer.

This means, for now, travelers and pilots are left having to pack their patience.

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A growing shortage of common cancer treatments is forcing doctors to switch medications and delaying some care, prominent U.S. cancer centers say.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network said Wednesday that nearly all the centers it surveyed late last month were dealing with shortages of carboplatin and cisplatin, a pair of drugs used to treat a range of cancers. Some are no longer able to treat patients receiving carboplatin at the intended dose or schedule.

In the video player above: A patient talks about how his cancer treatment was delayed amid medication shortage

Dr. Kari Wisinski has had to turn to other treatments for some patients or switch the order in which people receive their drug combinations. She said she's done that "hoping that within three months there will be a better carboplatin supply."

"It's really difficult as a physician to have these conversations with a family or a patient about not having a medication you'd like to prescribe to them," she said.

Wisinski is a breast cancer specialist with the UW Health Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, Wisconsin, a member of the network. She said doctors, nurses and pharmacists at her center have done a good job managing the drug supply, but doing so has taken them away from other elements of care.

Of the 27 cancer centers that responded to the network's survey, 25 reported a shortage of carboplatin. Among the cancer centers with shortages of carboplatin, more than a third said they were unable to treat all patients according to the intended dose and schedule.

Nineteen hospitals also reported cisplatin shortages, but all said they were able to maintain the treatments for existing patients.

Video below: More about the cancer drug shortage

The problem started developing earlier this year, said Mike Ganio, who studies drug shortages at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

"I think it went from being a shortage to being a really bad shortage really quickly," he said. "There's not a whole lot of room for it to get worse."

Ganio's society reported the cisplatin shortage in January and then carboplatin in late March, months after a factory in India that makes both drugs paused production following an inspection that raised quality concerns.

Manufacturing problems, unexpected demand spikes and tight ingredient supplies have all contributed to a growing number of prescription drug shortages in the United States. Many patients with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder have had a hard time filling prescriptions for Adderall this year, and drugstores ran out of children's medicines during last winter's cold-and-flu season.

There were 301 active national drug shortages through this year's first quarter, according to the University of Utah Drug Information Service.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken some steps to try to ease the chemotherapy shortage. The agency is allowing the temporary importation of some foreign-approved versions of cisplatin from factories registered with the FDA.

Video below: FDA says over a dozen cancer treatment drugs are under shortage

That should help, but the big factor is getting the factory in India back up to full production, Ganio said.

He also noted that drug supply shortages are a decades-old problem.

"We really need to get at the root causes of these shortages or they're going to continue happening," he said.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Recruiting and retaining prison workers is a growing issue for the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 10% drop in prison staffing in the next 10 years.

One state is leading the way to help close the gap in the shortage of correction officers.

“We were in bad shape just like everyone else; it’s a national problem," said Bryan Stirling, the South Carolina Department of Corrections director. “The unique challenge corrections have is the environment they have to work in.”

There is a growing crisis in our correction facilities. The lack of correctional officers is hurting facilities all over the country, even on the federal level.

The Justice Department budgeted for nearly 21,000 full-time officers in 2020 but only had nearly 14,000 of those positions filled in 2021.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts there will be about 33,000 officer openings on average each year for the next 10 years.

“If you don’t have the core function of safety, you can’t reach the basic needs these folks have without staff,” Stirling said. “So, we have to do things differently. So, what does that mean? More aggressive recruiting, more aggressive pay scale."

In South Carolina, the state is trying to fix staffing issues, because those who work here know this job is can be demanding. Each officer is responsible for the safety of the public, the inmates, and their fellow officers. Staffing shortages make this job that much harder. That is why South Carolina has taken several different approaches to try and fix this.

“It could be a tough job, but any job can be a tough job,” said Lt. Genice Cole, with retention at Broad River Institute in SCDC. “We have increased the training to feel more comfortable and feel more welcome. It was previously four weeks. With it being eight weeks, we give them the opportunity to be inside in the housing units with staff that are certified to give them a little more comfort.”

“I have been doing this for three months,” said Alex Hassam, a recruit for SCDC. “Honestly, training has been fantastic. Communication has been good. There’s a lot of people to walk you through things to help you gain confidence. You’re never truly alone and always having somebody who has your back that is very nearby.”

South Carolina recently increased pay for their officers. According to Stirling, an officer can make more than $50,000 in their first year. The BLS reported the pre-pandemic starting salary average was around $32,000 a year.

“We have more aggressive recruiting, and a more aggressive pay scale. We just had a historic pay raise here in South Carolina; other states are doing pay raises as well. Other departments that hire are union based, and you can be close to six figures starting off. We are up 150 officers this year just in six months due to the raises given through the legislature.”

South Carolina has also lowered the age minimum to be a correctional officer to 18, which Stirling said has helped fill vacancies.

“We’re going to pair them with experienced officers, with someone that’s older inside the prison. We’re not going to just put them in a dorm by themselves,” Stirling said.

This staffing shortage issue is expected to grow, but South Carolina hopes other states can learn from each other and implement the best tactic for their situation.

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

Surging shopper demand coupled with shipping container shortages and bottlenecks at ports has already triggered a tighter supply of products, from cars to shoes.

In particular, some of America's biggest sellers of clothing and shoes cite one catalyst that has compounded the pressure: factory closures in Vietnam stemming from a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak there. That's led brands from PacSun to Nike to warn about the effects on their supply.

In late December, Nike cut its full-year sales outlook due to supply chain issues, despite its CEO noting strong consumer demand.

Nike makes about three-quarters of its shoes in Southeast Asia, with 51% and 24% of manufacturing in Vietnam and Indonesia respectively.

But as the Vietnam government-imposed pandemic-related restrictions, including a mandatory shutdown of factories for several weeks from July into September, Nike said it incurred 10 weeks of lost production.

Even when factories start to reopen, which the company expects to happen in phases beginning in October, ramping up to full production could take several months, Nike's chief financial officer Matthew Friend said in a recent earnings call. Half of Nike's clothing factories in Vietnam are currently closed, company executives said during that call.

Vietnam accounts for a third of sports brand Under Armour's footwear and clothing production. Under Armour's CEO Patrik Frisk said during its most recent earnings call in August that it was closely monitoring the impact of factory shutdowns there on its supply chain there, calling it a "developing situation."

Ugg, Coach and Michael Kors have exposure

Vietnam is a crucial supplier to the U.S. in particular for apparel and footwear.

"It's a very big partner of the United States. It's our second-largest source of apparel and footwear," said Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, an industry group. China is the largest supplier of clothing and shoes, according to the AAFA.

In July, Vietnam was caught in the throes of a coronavirus outbreak caused by a suspected new variant of the virus, which Vietnam's health minister said led to a fast spread of new infections in the nation's industrial zones.

The government subsequently imposed strict lockdowns and temporarily shut factories there until mid-August, then extended it into September. Some factories are still closed.

All of this means that production for everything from sneakers and sandals to jeans, dresses, T-shirts, jackets and more are stalled.

In a research note last month, BITG analyst Camilo Lyon said athletic footwear brands such as Nike and Adidas are most at risk of having serious supply chain disruptions because "Vietnam has served as a strong manufacturing alternative to China in recent years."

Other brands that have significant manufacturing exposure to Vietnam, he said, include Ugg maker Deckers Outdoor, Columbia Sportswear, Coach parent Tapestry and Capri Holdings (which owns the Michael Kors brand).

Lyon estimates it may take five to six months for factories in Vietnam to be back up and running normally when the lockdown ends. And whenever they do come back online, he anticipates another issue: staffing.

"Vietnamese factories will also likely have trouble getting workers to come back to work post-lockdown," he said.

Teen retailer PacSun is expecting an impact on the holiday season.

Brieane Olson, president of PacSun, said in an interview in August with CNNBusiness that about 10% of its goods are sourced from Vietnam.

Olson said the retailer was already dealing with a two-to-four-week delay for its back-to-school inventory this year because of the ongoing global supply chain delays.

Now, she said, new products for the winter and holiday season are likely to also face another four-week delay, she said, making it a challenge to get new fashions and styles in jeans, tops, sweaters and sweatshirts into stores in a timely manner.

And there's an additional effect on the consumer, Olson said: Having less product means the retailer will pull back on discounts "because there is no need for it," she said.

New car sales plunged over the last three months in the United States despite strong demand, as the shortage of computer chips and other supply chain issues caused shutdowns at auto factories and choked off the supply of vehicles.General Motors reported sales fell a third from a year-ago last quarter, and they were off 40% from the same quarter of 2019 before the pandemic roiled the car market. Sales at Stellantis, the company formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA Group, fell 19% from a year ago, and 27% from the pre-pandemic period.At Toyota Motor, which includes Toyota and Lexus, third quarter sales edged up 1.4% compared to a year ago. But that three-month total includes a 22% plunge in September sales. (The company breaks out monthly sales numbers, unlike GM and Stellantis.) While Toyota has reported fewer supply chain disruptions than other major automakers it, too, has had to cut back production at some factories more recently.So all the automakers pointed to semiconductor supply chain disruptions and historically low inventories as a problem for sales."While the various supply chain issues facing our industry continue to impact available inventory, we know the demand for our vehicles is still there," said Jeff Kommor, U.S. head of sales for Stellantis.The shortage of vehicles has also led to record-high prices for both new and used cars for much of this year, which has also been a drag on sales, as some buyers have been priced out of the new car market.The auto industry has been dealing with a shortage of computer chips needed to build cars for more than a year. GM said it expects the situation will improve in the final three months of 2021, but earlier this year automakers had hoped things would have improved by this point. Instead, GM has been forced to temporarily shut production of most of its North American plants."The semiconductor supply disruptions that impacted our third-quarter wholesale and customer deliveries are improving," said the nation's largest automaker in a statement. "As we look to the fourth quarter, a steady flow of vehicles held at plants will continue to be released to dealers, we are restarting production at key crossover and car plants, and we look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall."The computer chip shortage started when auto sales plunged in the early weeks of the pandemic, due to record job losses and the temporary closure of many factories and dealerships. Most automakers, expecting a prolonged downturn in sales, trimmed orders for computer chips and other parts. When sales rebounded much faster than anyone expected, the supply of chips had already gone to other customers.While the automakers expected to be able to increase their supply of chips by the middle of this year, they were hit by outbreaks of COVID-19 cases in other regions, such as Southeast Asia, where many of the chip plants were shut. And other supply chain issues, including an imbalance of shipping containers and congestion at the nation's ports, a shortage of truck drivers and general labor shortages, started limiting supplies of other needed parts and raw materials.Other automakers are due to report results later Friday or on Monday.

CINCINNATI —

A bus driver shortage is wearing on school districts and parents across the nation. Ohio is even considering whether to have the National Guard step in to drive buses.

Massachusetts brought in the National Guard to drive students to school there.

Gov. Mike DeWine said last week, it's a possibility that could happen here in Ohio as well.

Right now, it's just the beginning of that discussion. But, one thing is for sure, drivers are desperately needed.

“She’s missed three days due to lack of transportation," Tanya Johnson said.

Her daughter has missed school because of a lack of bus service.

Johnson's 13-year-old daughter has attended St. Francis de Sales School since third grade. This is the first year she hasn't had transportation, making it a challenge for working parents.

“It’s like paying people out of pocket every day when we have to work to make money and pay the bills," Johnson said.

Johnson has been forced to send her daughter to school using Uber and Lyft.

School officials said Monday, they want answers from Cincinnati Public Schools.

“We have 230 students and over half of them need bus service and we only have two buses. We started out with six buses last year and we’re down to two buses this year," receptionist Greta Brandon said.

Brandon works at St. Francis de Sales. She goes in early to accommodate working parents and stays late to cover afterschool care.

Sycamore Community Schools is feeling the shortage too.

Mechanics, office staff and substitutes who are licensed school bus drivers have stepped up to keep the routes going.

“We’re trying," transportation director Mike Miller said. "We’re doing our very level best to get our kiddos to and from school safely every day. We’re doing our absolute best to accomplish that.”

While the National Guard is one option, nothing is off the table.

“What we’re really focusing on is thinking about this in a different way, thinking about maybe using full-time positions and driving bus just part-time of that full-time position," Doug Palmer said.

Palmer is with the Ohio School Boards Association and said even changing and staggering school start times is an option.

Meanwhile, Palmer said for 18 months now schools have been hard-pressed to get applicants.

He wants people to know there are a number of benefits offered for the part-time position if anyone out there wants to take on the job.

We reached out to Cincinnati Public Schools and are awaiting a response.

COVINGTON, Ky. —

As the delta variant continues to rise, more people than ever are waiting in line over an hour for something no one really wants – a COVID-19 test.

At the Gravity Diagnostic’s testing site in Covington, cars were lined up though the old IRS parking lot and around the outside of it Monday.

“My granddaughter, she’s not feeling well,” said one woman coming into the drive-through site.

“My daughter, from the school they say she maybe was exposed to some kid with COVID. So, we have to take a test for her,” said another woman in line.

The Gravity site gives the gold standard PCR tests. People usually get results by midnight the same day they took the test.

“I think we’ve all been surprised by how delta has changed things in the last six or eight weeks,” said Gravity Diagnostics CEO Tony Remington. “There’s a lot of peace of mind testing for just people going back to school, back to work, going to a Bengals game, going to a concert.”

Remington said the test sites have been so busy, they’ve opened new drive-through sites at Northern Kentucky University, in Ludlow and at Buttermilk Pike for St. Elizabeth Hospital. Gravity is also opening up several other sites around Kentucky and Indiana.

Take-home COVID-19 test kits are also available over the counter at many drug stores, if you can find them.

The cost is about $24.00, but many stores are sold out right now.

The over-the-counter tests kits are fast, but not as accurate as the PCR tests.

Hamilton County Libraries are also giving free take-home tests as long as the last.

“There are differences in the tests. The take-home tests are considered a screening vs a diagnostic test,” said the Health Collaborative’s Tiffany Mattingly.

Mattingly said the key is keeping people from going to emergency rooms to get a test.

“The prediction of where we’re going to peak is really difficult to anticipate. Right now, we know that we’re still climbing,” Mattingly said.

Daily TSA screenings are nearly back on track with 2019 and airlines are scrambling to keep up. Despite government bailouts, 100% of airline employees have not returned for a number of reasons.

“During the recovery, a lot of the crew members will go back and pilots will go back to equipment that they may not have flown before. And that training can take as long as six, eight, sometimes 10 weeks to get through, so it's a reasonably complex process to get that training coordinated, facilitated and, you know, put in place,” said Geoff Murray, a partner at Oliver Wyman, an aviation consulting firm.

It can also take time to get inactive employees back on the payroll and some may have decided to leave the industry altogether.

American Airlines says it will have to cut flights in July just to keep up. That could lead to flight changes for trips already booked and rising ticket prices for future flights.

Frontier is adding another fee to its bookings, claiming it offsets the cost of COVID-19 protocols. The airline will now charge an extra $1.59 each way you fly.

Meanwhile, Delta just announced an initiative to accelerate hiring.

“And I think, you know, every airline is placing its own bets in terms of what that recovery is going to look like and how they're going to be able to staff that recovery, but what I think you'll see across the board is a fairly rapid increase of capacity for every single airline,” said Murray.

As far as that government bailout money airlines received earlier in the pandemic, he says most used that to keep a certain amount of staff active while airfare prices were at an all-time low.

But as many airlines are looking to hire new employees, the FAA says it will give money to airports that keep the ones they have.

About $8 billion will be distributed to airports that keep 90% of the workers they had before the pandemic. The money will also help with airport construction projects.