HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio) - State officials announced a COVID-19 daily positivity rate of 17.78% Wednesday afternoon as more and more municipalities release their distribution plans for rapid at-home tests.
COVID-19 hospitalizations also surpassed 1,000 patients after the state recorded 150 more hospitalized patients since Tuesday, bringing the statewide total to 1,113 patients.
Of those hospitalized patients, state officials said nearly 74% of them were not fully vaccinated.
The positivity rate jumped 2.8% between Tuesday and Wednesday.
The increase comes one day before the state aimed to begin delivering one million at-home rapid tests to municipalities across Connecticut.
However, Governor Ned Lamont announced Wednesday afternoon that the shipment of at-home rapid tests are delayed.
“Due to shipping and warehouse delays outside of the State of Connecticut’s control, our state’s anticipated shipment of COVID-19 at-home rapid tests are currently delayed from arriving in Connecticut," Lamont said in a statement.
“My staff and multiple state agencies have spent the past several days working around the clock to accelerate the movement of our tests through what is clearly a shipping and distribution bottleneck on the West Coast amid unprecedented international demand for tests," Lamont continued.
The Lamont administration is in regular communication with municipal leaders, Lamont said, and will provide updates as quickly as possible.
Many towns have already announced their distribution plans for the at-home test kits.
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The town of Newington is hosting a drive-through event on Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Newington High School. Each vehicle will get a maximum of two kits, but town officials are asking for proof of residency, for masks to be worn and for residents to not line up before the 9 a.m. start time.
Bloomfield will also be distributing test kits on Friday starting at 9 a.m. at the west driveway of the Carmen Arace Middle School located at 390 Park Avenue. Like most other towns, proof of residency is required and there will be a limit of two kits per household.
In Manchester, about 5,000 test kits will be given out to residents at the former Parkade site at 324 Broad Street on Friday starting at 9:00 a.m.
The city of Hartford is anticipating to get 15,000 test kits from the state. Health Director Liany Arroyo said the city recently purchased 10,000 of its own test kits.
"Because the city will soon receive an additional 15,000 test kits from the State, the City will move forward with plans for public distribution [Thursday] using the test kits already in its possession," state officials said in a statement.
Starting Thursday, 8,000 testing kits will be available citywide at seven different locations: the Downtown Hartford Public Library, the Camp Field Library Branch, the Albany Avenue Library, the Parker Memorial Center, the Metzner Center, the Arroyo Center, and the Albany & Woodland testing location.