CT’s COVID-19 Testing Kits Delayed By Shipping Issues

HARTFORD, CT — Municipal officials across Connecticut are scrambling to revise plans after Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday evening that the state’s anticipated shipment of COVID-19 at-home rapid tests were delayed on the West Coast.

“Due to shipping and warehouse delays outside of the State of Connecticut’s control, our state’s anticipated shipment of COVID-19 at-home rapid tests are currently delayed from arriving in Connecticut,” Lamont said in a statement. “My staff and multiple state agencies have spent the past several days working around the clock to accelerate the movement of our tests through what is clearly a shipping and distribution bottleneck on the West Coast amid unprecedented international demand for tests. I want to thank our municipal and emergency management partners who have quickly and efficiently established their methods of distribution of the tests, clearly communicating them to their communities.

“My administration is in regular communication with city and town leaders, and we will provide updates as we have them in order to distribute the tests as quickly as possible. I thank our staff and leadership at the Department of Administrative Services, the Department of Public Health, the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, and the Connecticut National Guard for their incredible work to execute on this test delivery.”

Municipalities that have scheduled distribution events on Thursday won’t know if the test kits arrived in Connecticut until the overnight hours or early Thursday morning.

Some town officials have advised residents to check for updates on the town’s social media accounts on Thursday morning.