The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Northwest CT getting thousands of COVID-19 rapid test kits
TORRINGTON — City officials learned Tuesday that they are to receive 4,500 COVID-19 test kits, an allocation based on a town’s population, and are now discussing how to distribute them. The kits are being distributed by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
The expected initial distribution is as follows: Barkhamsted: 540, Burlington: 1,260, Canaan: 180, Colebrook: 180, Cornwall: 270, Goshen: 450, Harwinton: 720, Litchfield: 1,080, Morris: 360, New Hartford: 900, Norfolk: 270, North Canaan: 450, Salisbury: 540, Sharon: 360, Torrington: 4,500, Winchester: 1,350.
Mayor Elinor Carbone said the kits are a shortterm solution to bridge the surge in demand for testing.
“Always, our goal is to connect our residents to the most sustainable testing opportunities that already exist within our community and that will be expanded in the coming weeks,” she said. “In Torrington, we are fortunate to have several health care partners in our Community Health and Wellness Center, Torrington Area Health and Hartford Healthcare, all of which provide testing clinics.”
Carbone said the city will work with its partners over the next several weeks to increase accessibility to testing and vaccinations and promote testing sites and schedules.
“We are planning to set aside test kits for our essential workers (police, fire, public works), Friendly Hands Food Bank, the Community Soup Kitchen, FISH, Gathering Place, the Sullivan Senior Center, United Way (for use at the overflow shelter) and for residents in the Torrington Housing Authority complexes,” Carbone said. “(Out of 4,500 kits), that would leave approximately 3,600 for distribution to the general public. We are proposing to do three distribution sites so we can target the most vulnerable population and the general population.”
The city plans to have a drive-up location, a walkup and a separate site for senior citizens. Carbone said she is meeting with health care partners Wednesday to decide on the dates, times and locations.
DEMAS is letting each town or city decide how to use the test kits, said Robert Rubbo, health director for the Torrington Area Health District.
“There’s a limited supply; we’re getting 4,500, and we have about 3334,000 residents,” he said. “This distribution is intended to alleviate some of the lines you’re seeing at the urgent care center on East Main Street, and at the local pharmacies. People want to get tested before they travel or go to a family gathering, for example.”
Winsted Town Manager Josh Kelly has also developed a plan to distribute
the test kits from DEMAS, with a focus on Winsted’s at-risk population and how to best serve them.
“We’re making decisions in consultation with Hartford Healthcare and Community Health & Wellness officials to ensure that our distribution methods have as much focus on increasing public health benefits as possible,” Kelly said.
“We decided after consulting with health care partners that we want to target our vulnerable population, so we’re saving a portion of the kits, 400, for our senior housing developments,” he said. “We’re giving 250 kits to the Salvation Army at the food pantry, 75 kits to the soup kitchen, 100 to the YMCA, 200 to the Winsted Senior Center, and 50 to Winsted Area Child Care. That will leave us with 275 more kits, and we’re not going to give those out this week. We want to see how this goes first.”
Kelly agreed that the distribution is meant to supplement testing that’s already available around the state.
“The messaging I’ve seen out in the community so far has not stressed these facts enough, from my perspective,” he said. “I want to make sure we don’t have 9,000 upset residents on Thursday who thought they would easily get a test kit from the town.”
Barkhamsted First Selectman Don Stein has already decided that his town’s 540 kits will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis from town hall, on Thursday afternoon.
“The town will distribute these at-home tests kits to residents to help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, and to supplement existing testing,” Stein wrote in a mass email.
He said each will be available to residents, one kit per household member, on a first-come, first-served basis.
The kits will be distributed at Barkhamsted Town Hall starting at noon on Thursday and continue to 4 p.m. or until supplies run out. Another distribution will be held starting at 4 p.m. at the town’s two firehouses, in a drive-thru system, Stein said.
Stein also reminded people that they can be tested at local health centers and pharmacies.
An additional 1 million kits will be distributed to schools statewide beginning in January.
President Joe Biden said earlier this month that he will be securing 500 million tests, but contracts to buy the tests haven’t been finalized, according to Whitehouse.gov.