As virus cases rise, Bridgeport struggles to secure test kits

BRIDGEPORT — New Health Director Lisa Morrissey told City Council members Bridgeport is struggling to secure enough COVID-19 tests to implement a comprehensive screening strategy for Connecticut’s largest municipality.

“Our biggest challenge right now isn’t a lack of funding. It’s a lack of actual resources,” Morrissey told the council’s public safety committee Tuesday. “We cannot implement (a testing strategy) because we have not received a steady supply of test kits.”

Bridgeport as of Tuesday had the highest number of diagnosed new coronavirus cases — 3,401 — with 144 fatalities, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Morrissey, whose official first day was May 19, told the committee that over 14,000 residents have been tested — “30 percent of those in the last two weeks” — though the state’s data showed a lesser figure of 11,418. Either amount is a fraction of the 145,000 population that calls Bridgeport home.

Morrissey gave her report just days after Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz’s and Mayor Joe Ganim’s Friday visit to St. Vincent’s Medical Center to promote the drive-thru screening that facility and Bridgeport Hospital launched when the health crisis began in mid-March.

Now, with businesses, public buildings and attractions slowly reopening for the summer as stay-at-home-to-stop-the-virus’spread orders get relaxed, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration has been trying to ramp up COVID-19 testing, particularly in hard-hit urban centers like Bridgeport.

“We want to make sure anybody who wants to can easily get a test,” Bysiewicz said Friday.

Bridgeport has a half-dozen, privately run testing sites, but it has lagged behind some other cities like Hartford, which boasts 10. And on Wednesday New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker announced a series of “pop up” screening locations in different neighborhoods between June 5 and June 12.

Morrissey said she wants “our own independent testing facilities” and to expand service to and in low-income communities of color.

“We’ve had a busy week and a half, two weeks of trying to set up and organize testing,” said Morrissey, including reassigning some of her health department staff to those duties.

But, she said Tuesday, there have been too many disruptions to the supply chain caused by the worldwide pandemic. The city recently acquired 300 COVID-19 nasal swab kits expected to be used Wednesday afternoon to provide free testing at Central High School.

“We’re still looking to see if we can source additional kits,” she said. “The last we heard was we were looking two to three weeks in being behind. We’re knocking on every vendor we can find.”

Morrissey was hired away from the same job in Danbury by Ganim earlier this spring and was confirmed by the council May 18. Bridgeport had not had an acting health chief since Maritza Bond left in January to run New Haven’s health department.

Morrissey previously indicated she felt the city was not doing everything it could to contain the virus’ spread and screen minority neighborhoods where residents rely more on public transportation to reach existing coronavirus testing locations.

The city also had not been doing a good job tracking cases in its public low-income housing developments.

Morrissey participated in a conference call Monday with state health officials about the two community health centers — Optimus and Southwest — expanding their own testing to pop up locations in under-served neighborhoods.

“The state has their own pipeline” of testing kits that will be shared with those health centers, Morrissey said.

The public health committee on Tuesday also debated another COVID-related issue — how best to access federal aid intended to reimburse cities and towns for pandemic costs.

As previously reported by Hearst Connecticut Media, there are three major sources of federal dollars — the Coronavirus Relief Fund, Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief reimbursement, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Relief Fund — much of which will be funneled through the Lamont administration.

State officials have been gathering lists of expenses from cities and towns totaling $26.8 million so far and putting together a system for distributing money, in particular the $1.38 billion Connecticut received from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities has complained that process is too slow while Lamont’s staff has urged patience to get it right.

Councilman Alfred Castillo on Tuesday alleged New Haven and Hartford were also receiving direct federal money — but offered no proof. He also claimed that he had personally been in touch with FEMA and if the council passed a resolution, Bridgeport could directly access federal dollars “instead of going to the governor.”

Scott Appleby, Bridgeport’s head of emergency management, and Isolina DeJesus, the grants director, both disputed Castillo’s claims. They said the only time the city would deal directly with the federal government would be if there was evidence money was being withheld by the state.

“I’m not aware that we aren’t receiving any funds and would love for someone to share that information with me,” DeJesus said. “You could go to FEMA and say, ‘They’re not giving us the money’ but ... you have to prove you’re not receiving the money.”

“We’re not there yet,” Appleby said. He claimed that in fact Bridgeport was “kind of last to come to the table” on applying for reimbursement given “we’ve been doing this without a full-time (health) director.”

Castillo’s proposal was ultimately tabled.