Underserved urban communities the next focus of widespread virus testing.
NEW HAVEN — Gov. Ned Lamont joined U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Mayor Justin Elicker on the historic city green here Wednesday to underscore the need for residents of heavily populated, under-served urban communities to get tested for the coronavirus, even if they do not have symptoms.
The close proximity of city living, and the proliferation of
COVID-19 in black and brown communities, make it important for even those without symptoms to seek testing, they said.
While throughout the
10-week state shutdown Lamont has stressed the need for the sick, frontline medical personnel, first responders and essential employees to seek testing, the free event on the green marked a transition toward diagnosing the general populace as a prelude to tracking those who might infect others with the coronavirus.
So Blumenthal and Elicker submitted to the deep nasal swab performed by a team of gown-and-face-shielded technicians, while dozens of noontime passersby witnesed the uncomfortable but painless procedure. Dozens stood in line at social distances, waiting for their swabs.
Elicker said there as many as nine pop-up sites throughout the city, where residents may eventually be asked to submit to numerous tests to target hot spots. Elicker, who was also tested previously, said the city has the highest per-capita testing rate in the state. But with only 30 people per day currently accepting tests, resources are not being maximized.
“People regularly should be tested,” Elicker said. “People regularly should get tested and I think ultimately everybody needs to get tested once a week, once every couple of weeks so that we all get a sense of where exactly the virus is.”
The goal is to stop the spread.
“Testing is so key to us getting this virus under control, identifying future outbreaks in Connecticut with contact tracing,” Elicker said, stressing that a team of tracers is instrumental in asking infected people about those they might have had close contact with, and to persuade them to self-isolate. “We’re starting to transition from what you previously heard testing if you’re symptomatic — to opening up testing to other individuals who are asymptomatic. There is a lot of evidence that says the virus is transmitted even before people show symptoms. Some people may never even show symptoms but can transmit the virus.”
Lamont said testing protects the entire community, especially the state’s heavily populated areas. He described New Haven’s ability to track and trace cases is a role model for the rest of the state. When infected people tell researchers with whom they might have had contact, it’s a public service, Lamont said, taking a swipe at people who refuse to wear face masks.
Holding his own mask up for TV cameras, Lamont asked a question that points to potential deep-seated divisions in this election year.
“When did this become a political symbol?” Lamont asked. “What is that about? To our nurses in ICU unit, this is not a political symbol. This is something they do to keep themselves safe. This is something they do to keep their patient safe.”
He agreed there is a transition in testing on the way as the state reopens more over the next three months.
“For asymptomatic, we’re really focused right now on those first responders, folks in prison, nursing homes, nurses, doctors and as such,” Lamont said. “This is the next step. We want to broaden our reach in terms of how we’re testing not just symptomatic but asymptomatic. This gives us an idea of how we’re doing overall. Symptomatic testing gives you a limited prism. This is a wider prism.”
The state Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 35 more fatalities in the coronavirus pandemic, bringing the death toll to 3,803 since the first occurred on March 17.
And the net reduction of 10 patients brought the current hospitalization census to 684. That’s fewer than those hospitalized on April 1, when 766 were hospitalized and 85 had died.
Part of the state’s gradual reopening plans that started last week depended on the state’s ability to test 42,000 people or more every week. Lamont said that for the Phase 2 reopening tentatively scheduled for June 20, the state will need the capacity, and the equipment, to perform twice as many tests per week.
While Lamont has been tested recently, Blumenthal had not.
“What we have here is science and public health at work,” Blumenthal said after getting a deep nasal swab.
“It isn’t the most comfortable thing to have a swab, a stick inserted directly into your nose,” Blumenthal said. “It’s a pretty strange and awkward feeling, but it doesn’t hurt and I didn’t cry. It doesn’t hurt one bit. And it will help reduce a lot of pain and real grief for other people if everybody does it. That’s the key. It’s like mask wearing. If everybody does it, then everybody is better off.”
The pop-up testing site was created by Dr. Steven Murphy, who has offices for his private practice in Greenwich, Stamford and Stratford. He’s been testing people since March 9, before the statewide shutdown of nonessential businesses. He credited the government with helping him to afford to create the pop-up sites.
“The physicians have the capacity to care for the community because the private physicians are public health in the community,” Murphy said as his team of intake and testing specialists interviewed and sampled residents a few yards away.