Two Years Later: ‘Unprecedented' Challenges Overcome to Get COVID-19 Testing Going in Conn.

Getting COVID-19 testing going in the state was a major effort and so far, 15 million tests have done which doesn't even count at-home ones.

“This is something that will stay with me for a long time,” said Jafar Razeq, director of Public Health Laboratories.

On Thursday, Razeq sat down for an exclusive interview with NBC Connecticut two years after staff at the state lab in Rocky Hill detected that coronavirus had arrived in Connecticut.

“We just were waiting for when the first case would arise,” said Razeq.

Razeq said they started preparing after seeing what was happening elsewhere in the world.

In early March 2020, we were there as the U.S. Surgeon General toured the facility, which was the first approved spot in the state to do the testing.

Staff scrambled to get the needed supplies, and they started working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week to run a limited number of tests.

“The difficulties that we have to overcome were unprecedented,” said Razeq.

In the beginning, people had a hard time finding testing. But that soon ramped up, too.

Eventually, more than 700,000 people in Connecticut would go to a Community Health Center site, including one at Rentschler Field.

“We were doing gymnastics, organizationally, in terms of getting ready for what was to come,” said Mark Masselli, Community Health Center president & CEO.

After hospital and private labs were stood up, thousands of tests a day could be processed. And the public health lab could focus on specific areas, including helping with outbreak investigations at nursing homes.

“I'm really proud of the accomplishments that we have done over the past two years,” said Razeq.

The director said a challenge through all of this was making sure his staff didn’t get sick. And he’s proud that through all of this, other critical testing – including for rabies – never stopped.