Earlier this week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis hand-delivered COVID-19 rapid test kits directly to the homes of Colorado’s educators in Arvada, Parker, Fountain, and Pueblo… as Colorado launched a first of its kind, innovative At-Home Testing Program for educators.
Colorado purchased 2 million BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card test kits, and the state is working to ensure the kits will be delivered directly to the homes of teachers, staff, and selected students from hundreds of participating public and private schools across the state.
Colorado is one of only three states chosen to partner with Abbot BinaxNOW to expand use of rapid COVID-19 testing to further open our schools, our economy and successfully suppress the virus. The team at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) have innovated further by forging a partnership with Amazon and eMed, one of the nation’s leading digital health providers, to bring testing to the comfort of educators’ homes with a medical professional present through a telehealth appointment.
“In-person learning is essential to the well-being and safety of our students, as well as the future of our economy. This is why my administration has worked to swiftly implement and responsibly fund an effective layered safety approach in order to get our students back in the classroom,” said Governor Polis. “I was thrilled to deliver these important tests to our educators today and to speak with them directly about how we can work together to overcome the unique challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. I delivered 11 of them and thankfully Amazon is delivering tens of thousands more.”
“Colorado is one of the first states in the country to receive these test kits and we are pleased to support Governor Polis’ vision,” said Dr. Patrice Harris, eMed CEO. “The ability to test a population, in this case the teachers, staff, and students of Colorado, for COVID-19 is one of the necessary steps, along with masks, social distancing, and vaccines, that will allow us to curb the spread of this virus. The fact that the BinaxNOW test can be self-administered at home with results in as little as 15 minutes, makes this process easier than ever.”
BinaxNOW testing is one important part of the layered school safety protocols critical for ensuring students are able to learn in-person, including vaccines for educators and school staff, mask-wearing, symptom screening, ventilation, cohort isolation, quarantine enforcement, and social distancing.
These precautions are detailed in the State’s Roadmap to In-Person Learning, developed in partnership with the Back-to-School Working Group, a group of educators, parents, and public health professionals focused on getting the state back to in-person learning as soon as safely possible.