CT, NY, NJ governors vow to ignore ‘reckless’ fed testing guidelines

The tri-state governors of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey said Thursday they were disturbed by a change in federal COVID-19 testing guidelines, which they charged “substitutes sound science-based public health guidance with the President’s misinformation.”

The new recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say some people without symptoms probably don’t need to get tested — even if they’ve been in close contact with an infected person.

The pivot in an attempt to reduce the number of COVID tests, is not acceptable, the governors said. The three states will continue their current programs of tracking COVID outbreaks and tracing patient contacts.

“The CDC has been a consistent, credible, and reliable guide for our nation for decades, providing clear and science-based guidance on everything from infectious disease to vaccines,” said the joint statement from Gov. Ned Lamont, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey. “That role is vital to our collective public health and it must continue. This 180-degree reversal of COVID-19 testing guidelines is reckless, and not based on science and has the potential to do long-term damage to the institution’s reputation.”

The governors, joining an increasing push back by the scientific community, charge that the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have not offered a medical reason for the change. COVID has claimed 180,000 lives in the United States.

Lamont said the state is “making

it easy” to test for COVID-19, with 160 testing sites. As of Thursday, the state Department of Public Health reported that 1,111,401 coronavirus tests had been administered in the state. A total of 52,350 cases have been confirmed or are suspected.

The DPH on Thursday reported two new fatalities, bringing the total to 4,465, while there was a net decrease of one patient, with those hospitalized statewide was 56. There were 130 new positive cases out of 15,452 tests.

A story by Ana Radelat of the CT Mirror is included in this report.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT