Tests, but for whom?

At issue is not just the number of tests, but who gets them. The state’s association of community health centers is charging that Connecticut’s system for distributing the tests is once again widening the gap between the privileged and the state’s lower income residents, many of whom are served by the health centers.

“At the last round, we were at the table helping make decisions, and this time, we feel like an outsider,” Ken Lalime, CEO of the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut, said in an interview this week.

As late as Dec. 21, when the health centers asked for money to conduct more testing, Lamont’s administration said the testing in place was adequate.

Separately, organizations representing disabled people have sued the state over access to tests, which they said are distributed in a way that prevents their clients from receiving them.

And in schools, testing procedures in schools have also been a matter of controversy, as teachers’ unions and other critics say there needs to be more testing in place – and even the protocols that are in force depend on a supply of tests that could easily run out.

The plan is for any student sent home sick, or who becomes sick at home, to be given an at-home test. In addition, students known to have been exposed to someone with COVID are also given tests. The Lamont administration distributed 490,000 tests to schools, but that amounts to less than one per student and well under one per person when the tens of thousands of teachers and other staff are included.

More tests were the first item on a list of nine demands that the teachers’ unions presented. For now, supplies appear adequate but the administration has not been able to promise a steady supply.

“Up to 60 percent of my members don’t have access to masks. More than 70 percent have reported not having access to testing. That wasn’t the agreement,” said Katie Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, in a press conference this past week. “And I think we can all agree that’s not the workspace we want to be in. This is a big concern on how we are going to safely run our schools across the state. What we have seen is a real lack of a plan.”