Bessemer Library offers home COVID tests

By CHARITY SMITH

csmith@yourdailyglobe.com

Bessemer — The Bessemer Library has partnered with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to provide free COVID-19 at home test kits to the community.

Library director Melissa Lupino said MDHHS started a pilot program for the test kits in lower Michigan at a handful of libraries.

“It must have gone well, because they opened it up for other libraries to volunteer to be one of these sights, and we threw our hat in and we were chosen to be one of the distribution sights,” she said.

The library is one of 77 libraries statewide that were selected for the program, Lupino said. She said the program is geared for communities which meet the Center for Disease Control’s social vulnerability index.

The program aims to increase access to free COVID-19 testing resources for individuals, families and communities that might otherwise struggle with access to health care resources be hesitant to visit a COVID-19 testing location, or may lack funds to purchase at home test kits for themselves or their families, Lupino said.

“So we’re kind of isolated. We don’t have a ton of hospitals. We don’t have a ton of money, So here we are,” Lupino said.

Lupino said that she received around 300 test kits on Thursday afternoon.

She said that each person can receive one test kit per day, and up to 5 kits can be distributed per household each day. The library will receive more kits each month based on how many kits they distribute each month, as well as the supply MDHHS has available. Each kit contains 2 tests, as a person is supposed to retest after two to three days.

“Anybody from anywhere can pick some up,” Lupino said. “They don’t have to be a Bessemer resident. They don’t have to be a Michigan resident. We don’t ask for people’s names. We don’t ask where they live. We don’t ask anything. We just hand out tests.”

To pick up a test kit stop by the library or call 906-667-0404 from the parking lot for curbside delivery.

The library is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon, and 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m .; and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.