A Connecticut town set up a coronavirus testing site. Then neighbors complained.

(Image credit: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

published 20 March 2020

This is why we can't have nice things, or nice coronavirus testing sites.

In a move much of the U.S. can only hope for, the town of Darien, Connecticut announced Friday it would be setting up a drive-through COVID-19 testing site at its town hall. But not four hours after the town shared the news, it canceled the testing site — and it seems complaining neighbors are to blame, local paper The Darien Times reports.

The testing facility would've been Darien's only location for residents to be tested for the new coronavirus, as well as one of the first testing sites in the state and one of relatively few across the country. It was set to open Thursday but, as the New Haven Register noted, neighbors got pretty angry on The Darien Times' Facebook page. A woman who said she lived near the site commented that children live on the street and that town leaders hadn't told residents about the testing in advance, which somehow was supposed to convince government officials to cancel the whole thing.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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