At-home Covid testing kits unavailable at local agencies

Supplies of free Covid testing kits in St. Francis County have been depleted as area residents continue to seek testing.

The last shipment of the state-ordered testing kits, which arrived in SFC a week ago, were distributed within a few hours of being received.

The kits are delivered to the St. Francis County Health Unit, which keeps its allotment before sharing kits with other distribution sites such as city hall, the public library and the multipurpose center.

The county received its first shipment of testing kits on Jan. 11, which was part of the state’s 211,000 testing kits received that week of the 1.5 million requested from the federal government.

Forrest City Mayor Cedric Williams said city hall has received the free testing kits through both the Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission. He said they usually have the kits a little over an hour before the supply is depleted.

The last shipment of testing kits was delivered locally last Tuesday, which was also the first day local residents could order up to four testing kits for each household through the federal government.

There are two ways to order those tests. One way is by visiting the website, www.nachw.org/covidtests, and the other is by calling 1-800-2320233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489). The NACHW website will ask people to enter their ZIP code to get access to the official form. The federal government is planning to distribute 500 million of the free, at-home tests.

Officials with the local agencies that helped distribute the kits said people are still asking for them.

Library director Arlisa Harris said the library also distributes its supply almost as quickly as it arrives, but people are continuing to come to the library asking for the tests.

“Within several hours, the ones we get are gone,” said Harris. “We still have people coming in asking for them several days after they’ve been distributed. For example, yesterday we had people come in and ask if we still had any.”

St. Francis County Health Department Director Kathy Barron said the agency has seen a decline in the number of people requesting Covid tests at the agency, which she attributed to people being able to test themselves at home.

“I really do think the home tests have helped,” said Barron. “As soon as we get them, they’re given out.”

Barron reminds residents that the agency is continuing to administer Covid vaccinations and booster shots.

The local health department also has two members of the National Guard stationed there through the end of this month to help with Covid testing and processing paperwork.