Updated at 5:35 p.m.
On a chilly December morning two days before Christmas, Vermonters lined up across the state to pick up take-home Covid-19 tests ahead of holiday get-togethers — only to be told, in many cases, that the tests were all gone.
State officials announced Tuesday that tens of thousands of test kits would be available later in the week at 16 distribution sites across the state. But by late Thursday morning, the Department of Health announced that most sites had run out of antigen tests for the day. (Those who reserved LAMP tests through the department’s website were still able to pick those up at pre-scheduled times later Thursday, a department spokesperson said.)
Throughout the morning, lines of cars and pedestrians snaked around distribution sites. Readers told VTDigger that sites in Hartford, St. Albans and Colchester, among others, had run out of test kits by 9 a.m.
East Montpelier resident Sharon Plumb arrived at a distribution site in Berlin just after it opened Thursday at 8 a.m. Plumb, whose family of three is gearing up for a holiday gathering with older relatives, said she could not afford the $25-per-test kit price tag on her own. She planned to pick up tests for her entire family but was surprised to learn she could only obtain one test.
Plumb got in line a second time on the advice of a distribution team member and was able to grab one more test. Her husband and daughter, meanwhile, drove to the site themselves to pick up their own.
“They got the last two tests,” she said.
Following the morning rush, the Department of Health announced that it would make more antigen test kits available on Friday — two per car or walk-in, on a first-come, first-served basis. Some distribution sites had already been scheduled to distribute additional kits after Christmas.
The Department of Health expected to distribute 30,000 tests Thursday — including roughly 25,000 antigen test kits and roughly 5,000 LAMP tests, spokesperson Ben Truman said. The department said it would increase its supply of antigen test kits in the coming days for a total of 96,000.
Antigen test kits deliver results within 15 minutes, and while they are not as accurate as PCR tests, they are still considered very accurate. LAMP tests — which function similarly to PCR tests but provide faster results — are available by appointment only.
Vermont also distributed 6,500 antigen test kits to partner organizations in the community to give out to people of color and those experiencing homelessness, economic difficulties or food insecurity, Secretary of Human Services Mike Smith said Tuesday.
Although the Department of Health did not specify whether those organizations were running out of test kits on Thursday, at least one partner organization reported high demand. Patricia Johnson, a member of the NAACP and a nurse at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, said the state gave her 200 test kits. She estimated she received about double that number of requests.
Some pharmacies carry test kits, she said, but “people are saying that they can’t afford (them), or there are no tests available.”
The community Johnson works with may find getting to test sites challenging due to a lack of transportation or because they are working when test sites are open, she said.
On the hunt
The scramble for tests began early at the DoubleTree Hotel in South Burlington. By 7 a.m. — two and a half hours before the site officially opened — the parking lot was filled with cars, according to Jeff Patterson, who managed the test distribution site.
Patterson and his staff opened the site early and quickly doled out all of its roughly 1,200 rapid antigen tests, leaving many people out in the cold — literally.
“Probably for an hour after there was a constant stream of traffic,” Patterson said.
To get the message out before test seekers ventured into the building, Patterson placed two makeshift signs in the parking lot. To fashion the signs, he used the tools at his disposal: a printer, some spare cardboard and duct tape.
“WE ARE ALL OUT OF TAKE HOME COVID TEST KITS,” each sign announced.
Barbara Mentzer, a 78-year-old Colchester resident, noticed the signs just before 11 a.m. and turned around to walk back to her car. It was her second attempt to secure a test that morning. She and her husband had tried the site in Burlington’s South End around 9:30.
Mentzer said she had planned to procure tests in case she or her husband developed Covid-19 symptoms. If they did, the two could use a rapid antigen test to more quickly detect the disease and then seek treatment for it.
Mentzer said her inability to get a test kit didn’t trouble her.
“I’m not terribly, terribly worried,” she told VTDigger.
Marie Friedman, a mother of three from Essex Junction, was also turned around by Patterson’s sign. She said her family’s plans to spend Christmas with grandparents could change if they do not find rapid tests.
“I think I would talk to my family and see how they feel about it,” she said, adding that her entire family had received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Like Mentzer, Friedman’s stop at the DoubleTree was not her household’s first visit to a distribution site Thursday morning. Her husband tried the Colchester location around 8:30 to no avail.
Other sites in Chittenden County saw similar rushes to get rapid antigen tests. At 6:30 a.m., a line of 50 to 70 people — some waiting patiently in lawn chairs — had formed at the location on Pine Street in Burlington, said Norm Nault, who managed the site.
The site started handing out tests just before its 8 a.m. scheduled opening and ran out of its initial batch of 500 or so around 8:45 a.m., Nault said. With hundreds still waiting in line, Nault checked with state officials to see if he could obtain another roughly 600 tests from a nearby distribution site. The request was granted, and the Pine Street site resumed distribution around 9:45 a.m.
By around 10:30 a.m., when the replenishment of tests ran dry, there was no one left in line.
“We were able to get all of them tests,” Nault said.
But not everyone received the volume of tests they hoped for. While some people received more kits because they had a larger family or other circumstances they explained to site staff, single people trying to get more than one test were turned down.
Still, Nault said, most of those people did not give his staff a hard time.
“It was one of those situations that kind of explains itself, fortunately,” he told VTDigger.
At the O’Brien Community Center in Winooski, more than 500 rapid antigen test kits were distributed, but that still left hundreds of people who showed up to the location without one, said Wendy Elles, a staff member at the site.
“It was a madhouse when we got here,” Elles said. “But people were cheery.”
Jackson Lipfert, who oversees the Berlin site, said his team had roughly 650 antigen tests to distribute. The kits were gone in 30 minutes, he said. By mid-morning, Lipfert and his colleague had only the LAMP kits — retailing at $75 a pop — that Vermonters could reserve in advance.
Tonya Guyette, a health care worker who lives in Waterbury, walked up to a heated distribution hut Thursday in Berlin to pick up her LAMP kit. Guyette said she recently had been exposed to Covid-19 through a family member. With labs expected to be closed over the holiday weekend, she said she needed a LAMP test to get back to work Monday, rather than Tuesday.
Other Vermonters tried in vain to reserve LAMP tests earlier in the week.
Sixty-two-year-old Monica Martinet, who owns a thrift shop in Stowe, said she began looking for a rapid test on Wednesday after a niece tested positive. When she could not find a test at her local pharmacy, she tried to reserve one through the state. But the Lamoille County site was already booked, Martinet said.
“I’m just being as proactive as I can,” she said. “So to hear that there are no tests available when I just want to know. I don’t want to make anybody in my community sick.”
Constrained by reality
Truman, the health department spokesperson, said Thursday that the state was doing what it could to meet the demand for tests.
“We recognize the frustration (some) people may have and hope that everyone — tested or not — follow all the recommended steps to help prevent spread of the virus,” he said.
The department’s press release said Gov. Phil Scott’s administration continues to work on acquiring more antigen tests, “but like other states, we are constrained by the realities of the supply at the federal level.”
Officials have urged Vermonters to take advantage of free, state-run testing sites as a way to prepare for holiday gatherings, which are expected to lead to a surge in Covid-19.
“The holiday season is likely going to drive a spike in Covid cases. That’s just the reality,” Smith, the human services secretary, said Tuesday. “But by taking some common-sense measures, as the governor said — vaccinate, test, mask (and) ask — we can help control how high the case spike will be.”
The Department of Health maintains a list of antigen test kit availability on its website. Some insurers are obligated to cover the cost of antigen test kits at pharmacies, but it depends on the type of plan.
The following Agency of Transportation facilities plan to distribute test kits Friday starting at 8 a.m. until supplies run out, according to the Department of Health:
Bennington
359 Bowen Road
Colchester
5 Barnes Ave.
Dummerston
870 U.S. Route 5
Mendon
61 Valley View
Newport
4611 U.S. Route 5
St. Albans
680 Lower Newton Road
St. Johnsbury
1098 U.S. Route 5
White River Junction
223 Beswick Drive
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the Berlin site opened Thursday.
