Five new novel coronavirus testing sites will open across New York City next week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday.
As of Monday, the city now has five walk-in coronavirus testing sites through the Health and Hospital System in East New York, Morrisania, Jamaica, the Vanderbilt Health Center, and Sydenham Medical Center in Harlem, with priority for New Yorkers 65 and older and those with underlying health conditions.
Those sites are expected to perform 3,600 tests this week, the mayor said, and the five additional sites set to go online next week will boost the total number of tests performed per week to 7,000.
The number of people that went to the hospital for suspected COVID-19 went down between April 18 and April 21, from 212 to 204, the mayor announced during his daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.
The number of coronavirus patients in Intensive Care Units went up during that time period from 853 to 857, and the percentage of people testing positive for the virus went up from 34 % to 35%, according to the mayor’s office.
According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, at least 9,562 people have died due to the novel coronavirus and there are 134,874 cases. There are also at least 4,865 people who died during the pandemic and are suspected to have had the coronavirus.
The mayor’s office did not provide details on the location of sites to open next week.
