NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) – Demand for COVID-19 testing remained high Wednesday, with many locations reporting long lines as positive cases continue to rise in Connecticut and families prepare for Christmas.
Mark Kidd, director of Wren Laboratories and one of two scientists who helped develop a saliva test that is now offered in two New Haven locations, said demand for COVID-19 tests has “exploded” and so have staff his lab work 12 hour shifts to make sure people get results in a timely manner.
“For us, the most important gift you can give anyone right now is the gift of a negative test,” Kidd said Wednesday during a press conference held Monday at a testing site in Long Wharf on Sargent Drive. New Haven officials opened a second saliva test site on New Haven Green, along with other existing test sites in the city.
New state data released on Wednesday shows that more than 3,600 new positive cases have been reported since Tuesday. Over the past two weeks, the moving average number of new cases each day has increased by 925.3, an increase of 59%, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers.
Bridgeport city officials on Wednesday urged residents to take a free test at the North Branch Library rather than waiting in long lines at other locations.
In Waterford, for example, a weekly drive-through test site at the local library had to turn people away on Wednesday because the queue had become too long and a traffic hazard. The New London Day reported.
Stephen Mansfield, director of the Ledge Light Health District in east Connecticut, told The Day that rejection of people “was not uncommon and, unfortunately, likely will be in the future.”
“When it comes to test kits, it’s not about resources, just that the demand for tests has grown exponentially over the past few weeks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yale New Haven Health announced on Wednesday that all visitors who want to see admitted patients will be required to show a full vaccination card or negative PCR test. The change in visiting regulations, which will come into effect on Thursday at 8 a.m., results from the increased number of COVID-19 cases.
Patients are also allowed to have only one visitor per day, and that visitor must be 18 years of age or older.
Nuvance Health, which operates hospitals in Danbury, Sharon, New Milford and Norwalk, is also planning new visit restrictions starting Thursday. Visiting times for inpatients are limited to a maximum of four hours and for patients without a suspicion or confirmation of COVID-19 to one accompanying person per day.
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