Pilot program will deliver COVID tests to Vt. homes
A mountain scene along Route 4 in Killington, Vt. (Gareth Henderson Photo)
Starting next week, the state of Vermont will use a program developed by the National Institutes of Health to deliver 500,000 recently acquired rapid COVID-19 tests to households across the state. Gov. Phil Scott made the announcement Thursday.
The program will surge rapid tests into communities and serve as a pilot to help state officials assess a broader delivery model where residents order tests online and have them delivered to their home, according to the state announcement. This is similar to a system President Joe Biden has said the federal government will use to make rapid tests more readily available later in the month of January, but this program is in addition to that federal effort.
“Rapid tests are an important tool, but Americans need to be able to get them easily, quickly and far more affordably. While we wait for more details on President Biden’s rapid testing initiative, we are considering ways to simplify and expand our state’s testing system,” Gov. Scott said in a statement.
The governor said the state expects rapid tests to be “readily available at every local pharmacy for lower prices.”
“But we need to bridge the gap between where we are today and where things will be in the months ahead,” he said. “That’s why we are partnering with the team at the National Institutes of Health to get these 500,000 tests into households throughout Vermont and ‘testing’ the effectiveness of this delivery model.”
Scott said Vermonters should have clear expectations about the goals and capacity of this pilot project.
“While our primary objective is to get tests into the field as efficiently as possible, we are also assessing how well the system works so we can continue to improve testing options and work with President Biden’s team to make future testing programs successful,” the governor continued. “As with every new program, there are going to be unanticipated challenges, the number of kits each household can order will be limited, it could take up to a week for them to be delivered, and we expect that they will go very, very quickly.”
Scott also said that this pilot project does not replace, and should not be used to supplement, the Test to Stay programs in schools, pre-schools, and childcare centers.
Interim Human Services Secretary Jenney Samuelson said rapid, self-administered tests give community members another way to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s easy to perform these tests in the privacy of one’s home and have results within 10-15 minutes,” she said. “They are a very valuable tool and state and federal partners are working to make them more available and easier to get. As the Governor has noted, however, Vermonters need to have realistic expectations and know that we will use what we learn from this pilot project to inform future testing efforts and policies.”
The COVID-19 tests in this program are authorized for use by the FDA and are provided free of charge. They require a quick swab inside each nostril, and results can be read in just 10-15 minutes. For more details about the tests, click here to read the state’s announcement.
This pilot program is a partnership with the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, test manufacturer Quidel, and healthcare technology company CareEvolution.
Participating Vermonters will need to provide their name and address for test kit delivery. That information will not be shared, and no additional personal information will be required to get a free rapid test kit, state officials confirmed.
The state will announce additional details, and how to order, next week.
— Gareth Henderson
