As coronavirus cases on the island continue to surge, the Town of Nantucket wants to buy as many as 10,000 rapid COVID-19 tests for the island community. But just like individual consumers like you and me, town officials are finding it’s no easy task to secure the rapid antigen test kits that are in high demand across the country.
When Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced late last month that his administration would be distributing 2.1 million at-home rapid COVID-19 tests across the state, there was hope that at least some of those would be allocated to Nantucket. But the state’s criteria earmarked the tests for the 102 municipalities with the highest proportion of families living below the Federal Poverty Level. That meant the island didn’t get any. But Gov. Baker did say other cities and towns would be able to buy them directly from the state government, an option which Nantucket Health Department Director Roberto Santamaria explored. The problem, he said, was that the state set a minimum order of 75,000 tests, far more than would be needed on the island.
But with the help of State Sen. Julian Cyr, Nantucket has a plan to “piggyback” on a large order for tests being placed by Barnstable County. Santamaria has been in touch with his counterpart in Barnstable and is working out the details to secure a portion of that county’s order of rapid antigen tests.
“Barnstable County is looking to do a large order and so we’re going to try to piggyback on that order,” Santamaria said. “The state is selling them at $5 per kit, and we’re trying to figure out how many we can get. If the summer was any indicator, we’re going to need at least 5,000. Back then we received 3,000 tests and they were gone in almost two weeks.”
With rapid antigen tests selling on the island for upwards of $75 per test kit or more, and online vendors running dry due to the national surge in coronavirus cases, Santamaria said he is pursuing multiple options to secure rapid tests for the island community. He has reached out to Island Health Care, the federally qualified community health center on Martha’s Vineyard, about potential options, and explored direct buys from other sources.
“We’re working multiple avenues and it’s all on the table,” Santamaria said.
If the town does manage to secure an order of rapid tests, it’s not yet clear how much it would charge residents for them, if at all. There would have to be multiple distribution points, Santamaria said, due to the high demand that could threaten to overwhelm a single location.
How the town would pay for them, he added, is also another unknown at this point.
“The Health Department, we’ve burned through so much of our budget already, we don’t have the budget to do it,” Santamaria said. “We would need to look at alternative funding” such as any leftover federal funds from the CARES Act or ARPA.
The town’s bid to secure thousands of rapid antigen tests comes days after the coronavirus levels detected in island wastewater reached record levels, and hundreds of new COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed among island residents over the past two weeks. While the omicron variant has sent cases skyrocketing on Nantucket and throughout the country, Santamaria stressed that there is less severity among the new COVID-19 cases, and the island’s high vaccination rate has prevented more serious illness and deaths. Even some the recent local COVID-19 hospitalizations reported by Nantucket Cottage Hospital, he said, were instances in which the patient was hospitalized with COVID-19, but due to another ailment and not because of the virus.
In the past, the guidance from the town was that a positive test result on rapid antigen tests should be confirmed with a more accurate PCR test at Nantucket Cottage Hospital or ACK Dental Art, the only two locations on the island that offer PCR testing.
But that has changed over the past week, Santamaria said, due to the sheer number of people seeking PCR tests. The demand is so great that it has become overwhelming for the hospital. So the new guidance, he added, is that a positive result from a rapid antigen test should be treated as confirmation of COVID-19, and the individual should immediately follow CDC guidance regarding quarantine.
“If you do get a hold of rapid test, respect the positive,” Santamaria said. “If you run to the hospital, you overrun their process. The hospital is saying they can’t keep up with the numbers. People are looking for confirmatory tests and they’re overwhelming the hospital. If it comes up positive, treat it as such.”
