Massachusetts — State officials temporarily paused a program that provided coronavirus testing kits to long-term care providers in an effort to improve quality control problems, a state official said in late April.
Earlier in the month, the state announced that nursing homes could order test kits to be delivered directly to their facilities and administered by trained personnel. The program served as an alternative to the mobile testing offered through the state’s National Guard.
The state sent out 14,000 tests to facilities but had only about 4,000 returned. Many of the tests had leaks or were sent back to the state unlabeled.
The state said it still planned to offer mobile testing through the National Guard while it addressed issues with its test kit program.
Marylou Sudders, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Services, added that the state has better oversight over quality control than the National Guard program.
“We’re working with the nursing home industry so we can restart sending test kits once we understand what some of the logistical issues are,” Sudders told local reporters.
