An episode of the NPR podcast Planet Money that was aired earlier this spring chronicled the attempts of volunteers in several parts of the country to get a Coronavirus test, including a young adult in New Paltz who was entirely unsuccessful despite there being a surplus of home tests at Town Hall even while that individual was calling clinics and searching drugstore shelves. Attentive readers of Hudson Valley One may know that there have been plenty of tests available in New Paltz for a number of weeks; Town officials are expecting another mammoth delivery in the near future.
What’s been happening is that more tests are being sent to Woodland Pond than can possibly be used in that segregated senior-citizen development, and officials there would rather they be used than expire. “We’ve given out more than a thousand,” Supervisor Neil Bettez said during the April 21 Town Board meeting, but there are plenty more for the taking. The tests can be found at Town facilities such as the Youth Center, Town Hall and Police Station. In an earlier interview, Bettez remarked, “If someone were to take the entire box, I’d just put out another box.” The home tests that are currently being distributed expire at the end of the year, but it wasn’t announced how long the new ones would be reliable.
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