Following public outcry and confusion over the distribution of COVID-19 tests Monday, the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County said they were aware that their phone lines had been down since Thursday. 

The library teamed up with Mahoning County Public Health to distribute 4,000 at-home COVID tests to anyone who reserved them via the library's phone line at 9 a.m. Monday morning. When the time to call came, anybody who rang was unable to get through.

"We were aware that our phone lines were down Thursday morning," said library spokesperson Maggie Henderson. "Our IT team was on it immediately and was working with our provider to get it back up. They worked on and off over the weekend. We believed the lines were up and ready to go today."

She said the overwhelming number of people who called to reserve kits at the nine distribution centers crashed the phone system.

If the library system holds another mass at-home test distribution with the county, they will attempt to use phone reservations again.

"We are working closely with our provider to make sure this does not happen next time," she said. 

All nine of the libraries that planned to give out tests to those who would have reserved began handing them out to people who showed up in person. Locations were out of kits within hours of opening.

Henderson herself handed out tests at the Struthers Library alongside Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller. And while they were happy to help give out tests, they would have liked the phone reservations to have worked in order to ensure the safety of library staff and the public.

"We would have liked the distribution to work by people reserving them because this would have allowed us to package tests for people before their arrival," Henderson added. This would have been the safest way for us to make sure that our staff and the public wouldn't come into contact with anyone who might have COVID."

Libraries typically have been given their at-home tests from the Ohio Department of Health. Since March 2021, the Mahoning County library system has given 17,000 tests to the public.

The decision to partner with the county to hand out tests came about over concerns amid growing case numbers around the holiday.

"This was a chance to reach more people outside of Youngstown and get to the rest of the county," said Henderson. "Next time, we are going to make this work."