Cobb County buys 60,000 COVID home test kits to distribute

COBB COUNTY, Ga - Cobb County just bought tens of thousands of COVID-19 home test kits. County officials hope to have them in their hands in a matter of days.

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"We are pleased to be offering our residents 60,000 home rapid 2-test kits," said Lisa Crossman, Executive Director Cobb Douglas Public Health.

The tests are free to residents.

One kit costs the county $13.50. That adds up to $816,000.

"We had to spend the CARES act money by the end of the year, so we used that for public safety over time, and took the money that the general fund would have used for that, slid it into this year, to be used for pandemic related expenses like the test kits," said Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt.

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The Biden administration announced last month that the federal government will buy 500 million COVID-19 test kits. But Cobb Douglas public health officials said they don't know when those will arrive and with the latest surge in COVID-19 numbers, they wanted to get tests out as soon as possible.

Now, the county is trying to figure out how to distribute the kits. 

"Our first focus is on our vulnerable residents, so we made contact with a lot of our shelters," said Crossman.

The county is also working with churches and non-profits. The kits will also be distributed at the mass testing sites and other locations where anyone in the community can pick one up.

"We want to exhaust these 60,000 test kits as quickly as possible and get them in the community," said Cavitt.

The hope is the tests will arrive by the end of this week.  If that happens, they'll be able to start handing them out at Jim Miller Park on Monday, on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  County officials believe that would be the perfect way to help serve the community. 

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