Black clergy to distribute 20,000 COVID test kits

A coalition of Black clergy plan to distribute as many 20,000 at-home COVID test kits over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, as Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration has sought to prioritize testing for groups hard-hit by the pandemic.

The testing rollout was announced Friday during a virtual news conference, at which the clergy highlighted the disproportionate impact of the virus on the state’s communities of color , as well as a continued lack of access in those areas for in-demand items such as masks, tests and vaccines.

“We need more, there’s not enough to go around,” said the Rev. Carl McCluster, pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church in Bridgeport. “One of the challenges is that people who had access gobbled stuff up and it’s in our communities where the pandemic has hit the hardest and done the most damage.”

McCluster also used the event to promoted his slogan — “Fighting Fear with Faith and Facts” — that was the rallying call for an earlier effort by clergy in the Bridgeport area to encourage their congregants to get vaccinated.

As part of Lamont’s efforts to alleviate the testing shortage, his administration has distributed 154,000 tests through faith based communities, including predominately Black and Hispanic churches, mosques, synagogues and Catholic charities, a spokesperson said Friday.

Altogether, the state was on track to have distributed 3.1 million tests to municipalities and other local partners by the end of Friday, the spokesperson said.

“Even though we are building up our testing capacity and building new sites online. … We need to ensure every resident is able to keep themselves safe,” Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff, said during the news conference with Black clergy.

Lamont’s office also announced on Friday that it would issue new guidance to municipalities to prioritize distribution of masks and at-home tests to vulnerable populations, including those living in congregate settings, as part of an agreement with two advocacy groups that had filed complaints against the state with the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights.

As part the agreement, the groups agreed to withdraw their complaints and the state promised to distribute 20,000 N95 masks without metal to prisoners in the Department of Correction.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Lamont hailed his administration’s distribution of at-home tests, which he said was at its highest point of any time during the pandemic.

“At the same time the supply chain is unclogging, so you can also get some on Amazon and other online distributors,” Lamont said. “In the meantime, if you have the sniffles, don’t feel like you have got to test every day. Maybe you go home, see if the symptoms go away and then test and get back to school or back to work.”