Gov. Ned Lamont announced Monday afternoon that 3 million COVID-19 at-home rapid tests and 6 million N95 masks will soon be made available to Connecticut residents.
Lamont said in a written statement that he hopes the tests and masks will help combat a recent surge in cases driven by the coronavirus omicron variant. He said the kits can help the state get off to a good start in 2022 by curbing further spread of the virus.
The state says the kits each contain two rapid tests, and they’ll be distributed in the coming weeks. About 500,000 kits will be available to Connecticut residents beginning Thursday. In January, about 1 million kits will go out to K-12 schools in Connecticut.
This plan, according to the state, costs $18.5 million and is funded by federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
At the federal level, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling on the White House to increase its COVID-19 testing stockpile. He called for the Defense Production Act to be invoked so that Americans can have more at-home tests available to them.
In advance of the Christmas holiday, Connecticut residents took more than 200,000 COVID-19 tests.
