Employees at clinics across North Alabama say they are seeing a spike in demand for rapid coronavirus tests this week, and it's creating a shortage.

WAAY 31 called three different clinics in Huntsville Tuesday morning, and they were sold out of rapid tests by 9:30 a.m.

The organizer of a drive-through clinic in Athens, Aderholt Medical, says he believes the spike in demand is because of the holidays.

"For the safety of their family members or if they have elderly family members, they just want to come get tested for peace of mind, and surprisingly, a pretty large percentage of those patients are positive," said nurse practitioner, Brady Aderholt.

Aderholt owns Aderholt Medical and a drive-through rapid coronavirus testing site in Athens. He says with more people wanting to get tested before going home for the holidays, it's creating a problem for some clinics.

"People come to see us because they went to whatever clinic they went to first and they were out," said Aderholt.

He says he's seen a 30% increase in demand for rapid tests just this week.

"We've got plans to beef up staff to make sure patients get in and out in a timely fashion," said Aderholt.

Aderholt gets his rapid testing supplies locally, and hasn't had many issues with supply, but he knows that could change.

"I feel like it's kind of squeezing in on Limestone County," said Aderholt.

"People have been relaxing some of the precautions we saw over the summer," said Huntsville doctor, Thomas Spain.

Dr. Thomas Spain says even though he understands people want the rapid test so they can see family for the holidays, that's not enough.

"The negative test, again, is not enough to safely get together, because we unfortunately see false negative tests. People who were tested before the test became positive and they are still able to spread the virus," said Spain.

Aderholt says his drive-through testing site will also test for flu. For more information about the clinic, click here.