TAMPA — Spending the afternoon in line for a COVID-19 test may not be the way people wished to spend the first day of the new year, but it’s better than what went on here at Al Lopez Park on Friday.

“We actually went here yesterday and the line was really really long. I don’t know how long,” Tampa resident Tatiana Roa said Saturday.

Roa says she didn’t even bother waiting, knowing it would be hours.

She says she was not optimistic that today would be any different.

“We came back today and it was so much better,” said Roa.

People in line tell us their entire wait was less than an hour Saturday.

“It’s actually been great. We don’t have that much of a wait time. We’ve been moving pretty quickly,” said Tampa resident Pedro Martinez.

Martinez says when he came yesterday, the line was so long that he was told to come back in three hours.

Today he says he'd been waiting in line for about 20 minutes, and he was already halfway to the front.

“Fortunately when I passed by it was actually a short line, so I hopped in real quick and we’re moving pretty quick,” said Martinez.

Some people tell us the wait was much longer Saturday morning when the testing site first opened, but eased up throughout the day.

For a full list of testing locations, visit Tampa.gov.