Connecticut escalates COVID-19 testing
Officials, Danbury to focus on underserved communities
DANBURY — With headlines lauding Connecticut’s low coronavirus rates, it may seem like an odd time to ramp up testing. But health experts say this is the ideal time to expand, particularly to rectify disparities in traditionally underserved communities where Black and Hispanic people were hardest hit by the virus.
“In public health, the most effective time for testing and contact tracing is when the (infection) numbers are low,” said Kara Prunty, Danbury’s acting health director. “Although the state of Connecticut has recently reported the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in the country, it is important that our residents continue to
practice social distancing, use facial coverings, participate in contact tracing, adhere to self-quarantine recommendations, and get tested if there has been an exposure.”
Two federally funded health centers in Danbury are leading the local push to expand testing among the city’s poor and immigrant communities with pop-up testing sites at storefront churches, mobile testing teams in city neighborhoods, and expanded hours for free tests at their two downtown Danbury locations.
The plan is to identify the silent carriers — those who have no symptoms — and identify people in contact with those carriers, so they can be tested. In this way, along with other testing strategies, Danbury and cities across the state hope to prevent a surge of new infections that are ravaging states in the South and West.
“It’s a great effort,” said Mayor Mark Boughton, referring to the city’s partnership with the Community Health Center and the similarly named, but separate, Greater Danbury Community Health Center.
The Community Health Center in Danbury, which has five other locations including Stamford and Norwalk, has two mobile testing teams dedicated to western Connecticut, and has already conducted testing at two Danbury churches since it launched the initiative last week.
“Before, it was really hard to get a test unless you were in a high-risk group or you were symptomatic,” said Amy Taylor, vice president for the Community Health Center’s Western Region. “But now as part of our agreement with the state to make sure our most vulnerable populations have access to testing, testing is open to everybody.”
The Greater Danbury Community Health Center, meanwhile, is working with City Hall and local churches to establish testing sites where people feel most comfortable.
“Aside from the houses of worship, we are open to working with other nonprofits, such as food pantries, to set up pop-up testing sites,” said Katie Curran, chief operating officer and general counsel for the GDCHC’s parent organization, Connecticut Institute for Communities. “As a federally qualified health center, we are in a good position to do this, because we already treat a large number of Medicaid patients, and they feel comfortable with us.”
The expanded COVID-19 testing follows the decommissioning of the drivethrough coronavirus testing sites at Danbury and Norwalk hospitals at the beginning of the month. The hospitals’ parent company, Nuvance Health, said the move was in response to a steady drop in coronavirus cases here and in nearby New York that led the company to move testing to its primary care locations.
The testing expansion in
Danbury is similar to initiatives in other Connecticut cities such as Bridgeport, where testing is being coordinated through houses of worship. Under one pilot program, for example, the nonprofit 4-CT gives churches $500 grants to support testing, provided through local health organizations.
Of 21 churches in the pilot, six are in Bridgeport.
Latest focus
The focus on expanding testing to communities of color is the latest priority of Gov. Ned Lamont, as Hartford lawmakers look to the third phase of reopening the state.
Early in the coronavirus crisis, the state’s focus was on testing health care workers, who were taking the brunt of the cases in hospitals. As the crisis spread to nursing homes, the focus shifted to testing staff and vulnerable and older residents.
At the same time, state statistics pointed out Black and Hispanic people were catching the virus and dying from it at higher rates than white people. Specifically, Black and Hispanic people are three times more likely to get COVID-19 and twice as likely to die from the virus.
Then on May 25, a new national crisis
eclipsed the coronavirus public health emergency when a handcuffed Black man was killed on a Minneapolis street while a white police officer who had him in custody kept a knee pressed on the victim’s neck.
Weeks of civil disobedience and protests forced the nation into a conversation about ending systematic racism and police brutality.
At the same time, Lamont said underserved urban communities would be Connecticut’s next focus for widespread testing.
That’s when Danbury’s largest health centers sprang into action.
“We worked with the state on setting the testing payment rate, and we found ways that we can do hundreds of tests in a couple of hours,” Curran said.
Part of the outreach in Danbury and other cities is teaching that people should be tested regularly, even if they don’t have symptoms.
Another challenge is getting people to divulge contact information, so if they test positive, contact tracers can identify those who came in contact with the person to contain the spread of new infections.
“It is difficult work, but we do (contact tracing) all the time for things that are not COVID-related,” said Prunty, adding said 5,000 Danbury resdidents have been tested since May 20. “We do have staff that are trained to do it.”