A hastily announced plan from the Governor’s Office to fast-track delivery of over 1 million COVID-19 at-home test kits to state municipalities, combined with a lack of any advice or guidance about how to equitably distribute too few kits among too many households wanting them, left Newtown officials scrambling this week.

Until mid-afternoon Thursday, First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, Health District Director Donna Culbert, and members of the local Emergency Management team were still in the dark about when several thousand promised iHealth dual test kits would arrive.

Unfortunately, the latest news from the state about shipment problems is forcing a delay in dispensing Newtown's allocation of the kits to qualified residents who signed up to receive them on Friday, December 31.

The following message was issued Thursday afternoon by Newtown officials:

"Unfortunately as you may have seen in the press, the test kit delivery to the State of CT has been delayed. As such, we have not received the kits and we are not able to distribute on Friday December 31st as planned. We know this has been challenging for everyone, we appreciate all the support and patience that we have received for a not-ideal situation.

"If you had already registered, we have your email and we will be sending out a communication to you.

"We will reschedule as soon as we have confirmation of when materials will be received. It is our hope that it will be on the weekend but we are unable to commit to a day yet. We expect registrants to stay in their same time block, and they will not need to sign-up again.

"We will communicate news about additional test kits and masks coming in to the community in the coming days and/or weeks when we receive it.

"If you haven’t already, please sign up for News and Announcements on the Town of Newtown website, visit newtown-ct.gov and on the lower right hand side of the page click on 'Subscribe to Our Mailing List' where you can enter your email address and select the type of info you would like to receive. At a minimum check News and Announcements."

Timeline Of Events

A noon-hour announcement from Governor Ned Lamont on Monday, December 27, promised rapid distribution of 3 million COVID-19 at-home rapid tests across the state, and eventually, 6 million N95 masks in Connecticut, in an effort to help curb the rapidly escalating spread of COVID-19.

With indications that an initial delivery of test kits would be available for municipalities to begin dispensing them as early as Thursday, Newtown emergency management team members planned and announced a “first come first served” drive-up operation at Reed Intermediate School, scheduled for Friday, December 31, starting at 10 am, when around 1,500 kits would be distributed.

But by Wednesday, that Tuesday decision was modified.

Instead of contributing to what might have been a logistical and traffic nightmare by permitting vehicles to simply drive up and line up for test kits, officials quickly pivoted, crafting an online registration system that assigned time frames for residents to arrive at the school to receive up to two kits — each containing two COVID-19 tests.

That registration system went live Wednesday around 11:15 am. Every available anticipated test kit was spoken for in less than 90 minutes, according to a number of residents who turned to social networks to voice their frustration over being too late to get a distribution slot. The Bee confirmed by early afternoon that all the slots were gone.

Acknowledging from the onset that Newtown would receive only enough tests for a fraction of its households, officials were already looking forward to news about when the next allotment of tests, and a shipment of the N95 masks the governor promised would arrive. Instead, just after 4 pm Wednesday, Lamont issued a statement preparing residents along with municipal and health officials for possible disruptions to even the best laid distribution plans.

“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,” the governor said. “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.”

Lamont thanked municipal and emergency management partners who quickly established methods of distribution of the tests.

“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,” the governor pledged.

Locally, news of availability of a large inventory of in-home kits was mixed with reports of small shipments arriving at local retailers, some of which were limiting customers to single boxes and distributing them one-on-one from behind pharmacy counters and check-out stations versus just stocking them on shelves.

The kits are arriving as COVID-19 positivity in Connecticut, including Newtown, reached record levels. As of December 30 at 3 pm, the state’s positivity rate exceeded 20% with more than a half-million cases logged since data started being compiled in early 2020.

By Thursday afternoon, 1,151 Connecticut residents were hospitalized after testing positive for the virus, and that positivity rate had surged from just over 9% on December 23 to 10.71% on Monday, to 14.98% Tuesday, to 17.78% Wednesday,up to 20.33% Thursday.

Over the Christmas weekend, Newtown surpassed the 3,000 mark with 3,162 cases on record as of December 30. To date, the community has lost 67 residents to the virus. The most recent COVID-related death was logged more than eight months ago.

In addition to those designated for the general public, the state has purchased another 1 million iHealth kits — each containing two tests for a total of two million tests — to be distributed to K-12 schools statewide. Distribution of those kits, which will also include a supply of N95 masks, will begin in January and continue through the school year as supplies last.

Planning for this initiative is being conducted in partnership with the Connecticut State Department of Education. More details on the distribution of tests for schools will be announced in early January.

The total cost of the 3 million tests is approximately $18.5 million, which will be paid for with federal funds.

“Connecticut is currently experiencing another surge in COVID-19 cases that is being driven mostly by the highly transmissible Omicron variant,” Lamont said December 27. “As a result, the demand for tests has outpaced the supply of testing available through our statewide network of about 400 sites. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is likely to be a period of high transmission, and we have to get 2022 off to a good start by helping residents identify COVID-19 quickly and take those steps to isolate appropriately to curb any further spread.”

The governor added that the addition of these at-home tests woiuld immediately expand the number of tests available in Connecticut in a very short period. Last week, about 250,000 tests were reported to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

“There are three simple and effective interventions to fight off the current surge of COVID-19 from the Omicron variant — vaccination, masking, and testing,” Connecticut Public Health Commissioner Dr Manisha Juthani said. “We will be distributing two of these — masks and tests — so that our communities can work as quickly as possible to get past this surge. I strongly encourage people to limit gathering sizes during this holiday week.”

Because of the scarcity of test kits, Juthani is asking residents to please take only the kits needed for immediate family members.

She said if a self-test yields a positive result, there is no need to obtain a follow-up PCR test.

Readers can look to newtownbee.com, and our Facebook and Twitter pages for new details as they develop.

All official local details about test kit and mask distributions — along with guidelines and a link to register once additional tests and the first shipment of masks arrive — can be accessed by visiting newtown-ct.gov.

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Editor John Voket can be reached at editor@thebee.com.