Yesterday, the Westport Weston Health District received 40 COVID-19 test kits.
Officials called 40 people who had been at a party last week — the first known direct exposure to the virus in town — or had symptoms tied closely to those who were there.
Those nasal swabs were sent to a Quest Diagnostics lab in California. Results are expected in 3 to 5 days.
WWHD director Mark Cooper says they’re waiting for the next shipment of kits. The WWHD requested many last week, but they seem to be shipped only 40 or so at a time.
When kits arrive, testing will be done on a priority basis. Anyone with symptoms wishing to be placed on the list for testing should call 203-227-9571, ext. 237. You’ll be asked to leave your name and phone number. A nurse will call back to assess your symptoms and exposure history.
Westporters lined up yesterday at the Westport Weston Health District, for the first testing kits. Nasal swabs were administered under the blue tent, at the far left. (Photo/Steve Mochel)
In other COVID-19 news, Westport’s first positive case was confirmed late last evening by the state Public Health Department lab. “This was expected and comes as no surprise,” the WWHD says.
Statewide, 105 people have been tested. Six were positive, 99 negative. For a county-wide breakdown and more information, click here.
Has it at least been confirmed that Westport’s first case was someone who attended the party, or do we know if there was another ‘point of entry,’ as it were?
Would it be possible to know if the positive is an adult or a child? If a child what school?
That should not violate any HIPA privacy issues, just to ensure we are all aware and also communicate to employers as needed.
Thank you
(Apologies if this is a duplicate.)
Do we know if the positive test was someone from the party, or is this from another ‘point of entry’ into town?
I think the out-of-state confirmed case that is reported in State link is for a New York resident who was treated in Greenwich hospital, and not the Westport visitor.
At this point I would think everyone knows that “anyone who wants the test can get it” is a falsehood of the greatest magnitude. CDC is a National Standard lab that tests for a broad spectrum of diseases that many hospitals are not set up to do. For an imminent pandemic- commercial labs that can run tens of thousands of tests would be needed based on the China and South Korea experiences. Someone made a decision not to approve commercial labs for testing for covid19. You can’t put out a fire if you are told to keep you eyes closed. Someone made a terrible decision that will cause great anguish, unnecessary deaths and someone should have to explain why and how that decision was made and who made recommendations that contributed to the decision.
During the Vietnam War, I served as a Lt Cmdr in the USPHS from 1967 to 1969 and was assigned to the NCDC as a medical officer under then Asst Surgeon General David Sencer. I went to the meetings where these types of decisions were made. There were chains of responsibility. I think we all deserve an explanation of what went wrong- in hospital parlance it is called a morbidity and mortality conference explaining what happened and why.
Thank you for your service Steve
I was told each test kit contains 600 tests. Can someone confirm? Does anyone have documentation on this?
Article says WWHD using Quest Diagnostic kits… not the kits sent around to the states for testing that the CT Dept of Health needs to authorize which at one point was 600 in a kit … good question as to why there is no access to the state kits??
Thank you for keeping us informed. Very grateful.
Thank you for your continued coverage on this, Dan!
Thanks, Michelle. We are all in this together. We all do what we can!