New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Lamont: State to receive million rapid COVID tests
Connecticut will receive about 1 million rapid COVID-19 tests as part of the Trump administration’s plan to distribute 100 million of them to states nationwide by the end of the year.
In a post on Twitter, Gov. Ned Lamont said the White House informed him that Connecticut “will be awarded tens of thousands” of rapid coronavirus tests. He said the state will get “roughly a million (tests) in total by the end of the year.”
Lamont’s office said it did not have additional comment or details about the tests.
President Donald Trump announced Monday afternoon his administration would soon send 100 million Abbott rapid point-ofcare COVID-19 tests to states, with 6.5 million being shipped out this week.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence publicly urged governors to use the tests to reopen and keep open K-12 schools. But governors, who received a White House briefing on the test distribution Monday, will have the final discretion on what to do
with the new tests. The allocation to each state is based on population.
“This is a game-changer,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who spoke at the White House with Trump on Monday afternoon. “We will have testing available for our K-12 teachers every single day going forward.”
In addition to the shipments for states, Trump’s administration will send rapid tests to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, tribal health centers and historically Black colleges and universities, Trump said. In total, 150 million of the tests will be sent across the country.
The test gives results in 15 minutes without a machine and can be self-administered if needed, said Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration’s
testing czar. He demonstrated the test by swabbing his own nose in the White House Rose Garden.
“Literally, it almost could not be easier,” he said.
Abbott point-of-care tests have been known to generate false results, prompting public health experts to advise using these as a complement to other testing.
State officials indicated earlier this year that they hoped to test 1 million people monthly for the coronavirus by December. That figure, which represents roughly one-third of Connecticut’s population, was included in the state’s testing plan filed in July with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources.
To meet the goal of testing
1 million people each month, Connecticut would have to more than double the amount of diagnostic tests performed in August.
On Monday, the state announced another 560 confirmed cases of the virus since Friday and two more COVID-19-linked death — with 57,147 cases and 4,503 deaths since the pandemic hit in March.
One person was discharged from the hospital, with 75 state residents still hospitalized with the coronavirus.
The state performed 52,022 more tests since Friday, with 1,568,802 tests done overall.
The state’s testing plan to get to 1 million tests a month by December would require expanding testing sites, hiring more personnel
and obtaining additional equipment.
The plan, required by Connecticut and others to get coronavirus testing funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year, indicated the state intends to focus testing on educators and students at universities and schools, expand testing for nursing home residents and incarcerated individuals and bump up community testing in neighborhoods.
The state has not met its target goals for serology testing among residents. There were 8,335 serology tests performed in August and 14,384 in July, data from the governor’s office showed. Each month, the plan showed, the state’s goal was 50,000 tests.
The state also announced Monday that in-person visitation restrictions at nursing homes have been lifted. While many guidelines remain in place for visitors to Connecticut nursing homes, Monday’s changes will allow in-person visits for the first time since March.
Also on Monday, the state Department of Education started to distribute 600,000 cloth face masks to school districts across the state, obtained through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The masks distributed Monday were for grades 7-12 since they were adultsized masks, the state said. A second delivery, expected to have child-sized masks, will be distributed to the younger grades.