COVID-19 survivor asks for more testing

lowell » “I apologize for my voice. This is what it sounds like when you’ve spent 33 days on a ventilator.”

That was how resident Shirley Archambault began her input at the City Council’s Jan. 12 meeting on a pair of bundled motions by Mayor John Leahy and Councilor Sokhary Chau asking City Manager Eileen Donoghue to provide a report on the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and the status of testing sites in the city.

Archambault, who was disabled by COVID-19 and lost her husband, Ronald, to the virus, joined the meeting by Zoom to discuss the importance of keeping up with coronavirus testing until the vaccine can be more widely distributed. She said she doesn’t wish what happened to her family on anyone and believes people like her need to come forward to show how serious of a problem COVID-19 remains.

When Archambault’s family was struck by COVID last May, she said it was easy to access lab tests. At that time, her daughter, Rhiannon, was able to get tested four times over five weeks at Lowell General Hospital’s driveup test site, she said.

Now, however, it is much more difficult to access testing, even as Massachusetts experiences its highest number of active cases since the start of the pandemic, Archambault said.

“Nearly all appointment-only sites are booked almost immediately. Drive-up testing continues to disappear almost as fast as it appears, and many have to travel upwards of 30 to 40 miles to find a test,” she said. “Now, imagine those circumstances, but add in