With Executive Council’s OK, liquor stores will begin selling COVID-19 tests

If the Executive Council gives the go-ahead at its meeting Wednesday, the state’s liquor stores will sell not just wine and spirits – but also at-home COVID-19 tests. 

The request comes as more Granite Staters say they have tested positive for COVID-19 than ever before, according to a poll released Tuesday by the UNH Survey Center. 

The Department of Health and Human Services hopes to use $12 million in federal pandemic aid to buy 1 million tests and sell them at cost plus an administrative fee at liquor stores. Selling the tests there will provide the state easy access to storage and maximize distribution, Commissioner Lori Shibinette wrote in her request.

The Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee approved the request Friday, but the department also needs approval from the Executive Council.

The money collected from sales would be returned to the department’s American Rescue Plan funds and used for another eligible expense. 

“National antigen supply chains are limited, which prevent New Hampshire residents from easily purchasing these tests through traditional access points (e.g. pharmacies, large retailers),” Shibinette wrote. “With the continued increase in community spread of COVID-19 in New Hampshire, rapid and early detection is important to reduce the spread of disease throughout New Hampshire, limit the strain on our medical care system, and keep schools and businesses open.”

Almost 30 percent of respondents to the UNH Survey Center’s most recent poll said they have tested positive for COVID-19 at least once since the start of the pandemic. Of those, 13 percent said they did so in the last month and 8 percent in the last three months. That coincides with the spread of the more contagious omicron variant.

It’s a much higher test positivity rate than what Vermonters have reported, according to the poll. There, only 13 percent of residents say they have tested positive since the start of the pandemic. About half said they did so in the last month. 

The increase in cases has not deterred most people from going out, the poll found. 

Eighty-two percent of respondents said they were comfortable going to a hair salon, 73 percent were OK eating inside at a restaurant, and 55 percent are comfortable going to a movie theater. Fewer were ready to go to a large concert (36 percent) or a college or professional athletic stadium (41 percent.)