Anne Arundel County getting 200k test kits

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md — At home test kits have been hard to come by now. Anne Arundel county was the first county to distribute test kits from their libraries in the state in November.

"We gave out about 47,000 in about a month."

Now we have seen 5,000 distributed from one location in a little over an hour. In case you think these kits are sitting in some warehouse collecting dust, you would be wrong.

"Myself and some of my colleges have been driving test kits around. Our wonderful delivery people have been making extra trips to the health department warehouse to get them as soon as we found out we have them."

County Executive, Steuart Pittman, says 200,000 new kits are slated for the county. 100,000 will go to the school system. There are 80,000 students in Anne Arundel County public schools. The other 100,000 will be handed out at all 16 libraries in the county.

This COVID virus situation has been so difficult for many of us but, as we've seen, there is some good news that have come out of this pandemic.

"We have seen a number of new faces come through our buildings. People who haven't been to the library in a very long time or who have never been, so we are thrilled we are seeing new people. Exposing people to all the wonderful resources we have here at the library."

They hope to have 20,000 available within the week to get to the libraries. They ask for you not to stock pile these test kits. They will hand out one per customer. If you are having COVID symptoms they don't want you to come in person to the library

"Send a neighbor or friend to come and get you a test kit. If you are having symptoms, we don't necessarily want you in the library sick."