Health & Fitness
City Opens New Walk-In Coronavirus Test Centers In Each Borough
Three testing sites opened Friday and another two will open Monday. The sites will administer 2,400 tests per week.
NEW YORK, NY — New walk-in coronavirus testing sites opened, or will be opening soon, at public hospitals in each city borough as New York City officials attempt to ramp-up testing efforts, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.
Three of the testing sites opened Friday at Gotham Health East New York, Morissania Hospital in the Bronx and Vanderbilt Hospital in Staten Island, city officials said. Two additional centers will open Monday at NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens and Sydenham Hospital in Harlem. All of the testing sites are located in public hospitals, city officials said.
De Blasio explained Friday that the city's testing efforts are evolving from critically-ill patients and first responders to include "groups of people in this city who have been hardest hit by this disease." The mayor stated that low-income communities and communities of color "have borne the brunt of this crisis."
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The five new walk-in test centers will prioritize patients older than 65 with preexisting medical conditions who live in areas of the city that have been disproportionately affected by the spread of coronavirus. Appointments for tests must be made ahead of time through 311, de Blasio said.
Testing capacity for the five new sites will begin at 2,400 tests per week, but de Blasio hopes to double that number "quickly," the mayor said Friday. Results should be available for patients within one to two days after resting, city officials said.
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"On the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, we see clear disparities in communities of color, lower income populations, immigrants, and New Yorkers with multiple comorbid conditions," NYC Health + Hospitals President Mitchell Katz said in a statement.
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