Revere Public School Students To Receive COVID Test Kit Before Holiday Break
REVERE (CBS) - Revere received more than 13,500 at-home rapid COVID-19 test kits from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard on Tuesday. The city was one of the first of 102 cities in towns in Massachusetts to receive the kits as a part of plan to help communities hard hit by the pandemic before the holidays.
City Director of Public Health Lauren Buck organized the boxes of tests into neat piles for each Revere school as the plan is to dole out more than half to school children.
"The goal is to have all the Revere Public School students go home for holiday break with a kit, each student. So, that's a big chunk. That's about 7,600," Buck said.
The rest of the test kits will go to the Revere Housing Authority, senior facilities, and faith groups.
Chelsea and Boston also received their test kits Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the National Guard.
"It's a non-invasive process, four steps, highly effective," said state Sec. of Human Services Marylou Sudders about the tests.
For the cities and towns that are not part of the one-time distribution, the governor says there's another plan in the works.
"There's also a contract that's being negotiated currently to make it possible for all cities and towns in Massachusetts to purchase these tests on behalf of their residents…and they can use federal funds to make those purchases," he said.