Free HIV Tests at CVS MinuteClinics Throughout The City

NEW YORK CITY — In recognition of National HIV Testing Day, which was on Monday, CVS Pharmacy will offer no-cost tests from June 29 to July 13 throughout the Big Apple at its MinuteClinics. The CVS Health Equity Action Initiative comes at a crucial time, as the state’s Department of Health goals to virtually end the epidemic of the disease by the end of 2020 were thwarted because of the reallocation of resources for the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Center for Disease Control.

As a result, the state has revised its “End the Epidemic” plans for the end of 2024, according to a 2020 DOH report. Despite statistics that there was a decline in the number of new infections throughout the city and the state in men, women and transgender people of various races ages 13 and older in both 2019 and 2020, there are still pockets of new cases in Black and Hispanic and low-to-middle income areas because of a significant reduction in testing and access to medication like Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). Gay and bisexual men also made up the brunt of the new diagnoses, according to the CDC.

CVS Pharmacy has teamed up with Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company, to provide the free tests.

“Testing is the critical first step to HIV prevention and care and yet testing rates have plummeted in recent years, partly due to the ongoing pandemic,” Drexel Shaw, a national HIV liaison for CVS Health, said in a statement. “We are thrilled that with this collaboration with Gilead, we can offer convenient, no-cost testing in communities with some of the highest HIV diagnosis rates in our country so that more people can learn their HIV status and take steps to protect themselves. Working together, we can end this epidemic.”

The Big Apple’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene plans to do its part in ending the epidemic via its New York City 2020 Ending the HIV Epidemic Plan, which includes five key strategies.

The methods include increasing the number of people who know their HIV status by diagnosing the infection as early as possible by promoting routine testing within health care facilities; increasing access to effective prevention interventions, which include PrEP, PEP, condoms and supportive services; improving viral suppression and other health outcomes by optimizing medication adherence and coordination of clinical services; enhancing methods to identify and intervene on HIV transmission networks; and by utilizing an intersectional community-driven approach to mitigate systems of discrimination or oppression that exacerbate HIV-related health inequities.

“Stigma can prevent some individuals from getting tested, even in centers that offer free testing,” a CVS Health spokeswoman said to Patch via email. “Per our standard process for [sexual transmitted infections] testing, we will conduct tests in private examination rooms, so other customers won’t know that an individual is visiting the store for an HIV test.”

The city and state’s goals align with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ HIV initiative, which aims to eliminate 90 percent of diagnoses by 2030, according to the spokeswoman.