More than one million COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been recorded in Connecticut, the governor's office announced Wednesday.
The median time for a resident to receive test results back this month has been one day with 75% of test results returned in two days or less, according to the governor's office.
“I am incredibly proud of the work that our agencies, state-contracted laboratories, and testing partners have done to ensure that we have a test available for everyone who needs one in our state,” Governor Ned Lamont said in a statement. “This is a significant milestone, but we have to continue these efforts and keep going. We’re committed to moving forward with initiatives that keep testing available in the state to protect our residents, maintain the progress of our safe reopening, and get children back to school. I want to thank our partners in both the public and private sectors that have made this milestone a reality.”
The state is currently encouraging residents with symptoms of coronavirus to get tested as well as anyone who lives in a densely populated areas or housing units to be tested.
The state is focusing right now on testing of people who live or work in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, direct care workers and clients, correctional facility staff and inmates, and residential college students, the governor's office said.
“In addition to wearing a mask, social distancing, and isolation and quarantine when needed, the ability to test for COVID-19 is critical to informing our public health strategy to keep as many people safe and healthy as we reopen our economy and children go back to school,” Acting Public Health Commissioner Deidre Gifford said in a press release marking the milestone. “Connecticut has relentlessly pursued creating as much testing capacity as possible, working with in-state labs to greatly expand testing and reduce the delays seen in other states for getting results. We have also focused on providing easily available testing for high risk populations with no out of pocket costs for the individual. This is very important as an early warning system for any potential outbreaks. We continue to look for innovative ways to grow our testing efforts in conjunction with subject matter experts in and outside of government by exploring more broad-based methods like saliva testing and pool testing. I look forward to continuing the progress we have already made.”
On Wednesday, the state released new COVID-19 numbers for Connecticut, which included an additional 59 cases since yesterday. The total number of cases of coronavirus in Connecticut is 51,314.
One additional death was reported, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths to 4,457.
Two additional patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. A total of 49 patients remain in the hospital, according to new numbers released by the state.
a