CT COVID-19 Test Kits Delay: 'Things Were Misrepresented To Us'

CONNECTICUT, CT — The number of coronavirus cases continues to climb across the nation and the state, while a supply of 500,000 at-home test kits promised to municipalities never made it off the tarmac on the West Coast last night.

The daily coronavirus positivity rate as reported by the Department of Public Health on Thursday is 20.33 percent, the highest since early May 2020. The number is based on 7,704 cases confirmed out of 37,891 tests.

Municipal officials across Connecticut scrambled overnight to revise plans after Lamont announced Wednesday evening that the state's anticipated shipment of COVID-19 at-home rapid tests was delayed on the West Coast.

In a statement issued earlier Thursday, Lamont blamed the hold-up on a "shipping and distribution bottleneck on the West Coast amid unprecedented international demand for tests."

But during an East Hartford news conference late Thursday afternoon, Lamont revealed "that particular shipment is no longer on its way." Although the agreement that the state had with the supplier was "airtight" according to the governor, he told reporters that "I think we got a little ahead of ourselves."

No money had changed hands for the shipment, Lamont said.

Many municipal governments and local health departments which were primed to take receipt of the precious test kits had scheduled distribution events as early as Thursday morning. A shipment of kits from a different supplier could be in the state within 72 hours, Lamont said, but "subject to enormous caveats."

Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said the state had created a purchase order and "absolutely had a contract," but "things were misrepresented to us."

A visibly irritated Lamont urged residents to "bear with us" and teased he would have some good news in the next few days."

"This is not like you go into a store, order it up, and Federal Express delivers it, and it comes at 10 o'clock the next morning."

In the Nutmeg State, the number of coronavirus-associated deaths has risen steadily since the start of December.

Eighty-three residents have died from COVID-19 over the past seven days, up from last week's DPH report of 75 deaths. The coronavirus death toll in the state is currently 9,160.

Lamont called the latest tally of COVID-19 fatalities, and the rising positivity rate, "eye-popping."

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Connecticut continue to close in on the pandemic peak from last December 2020. DPH is reporting that another 38 Connecticut residents are in the hospital with COVID-19, bringing the total number to 1,151.

Most of those hospitalized (370) are in New Haven County.

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