Testing in New York City for COVID 19 and for antibodies are expanding throughout the city, with the latest antibody test sites now having long lines, with first responder priority.
Test sites now vary from the clinic and hospital tests, drive thru’s in four boroughs, and now antibody tests being administered at clinics throughout the city.
As New York state continues increasing its testing capacity, more New Yorker’s will be eligible to get a COVID-19 test — and be able to take them at their local pharmacy. Right now, only authorized medical sites and drive thru’s administer the test.
The state’s 300 labs have ramped up testing to the point where more collection sites are needed to obtain additional samples. Gov. Cuomo signed an executive order authorizing more than 5,000 independent pharmacists to serve as collection sites.
The state will now permit first responders, health care workers and various essential workers to take a COVID-19 test, and they will also be given priority at anti-body testing sites throughout the state. At a Medrite Clinic on Second Avenue, members of the Counter-Terrorism Taskforce were given priority testing, along with paramedics and some health care professionals.
One man standing on line at the Second Avenue site, Carlo Gutierrez of Manhattan, said he got sick during the last week of January and suspected he might’ve had COVID-19 then.
“We didn’t know then what the COVID-19 symptoms were then, so now I want to see if I have the anti-bodies – we don’t even know if it will help, but hopefully I will know if I have some immunity, but maybe it can help someone else,” Gutierrez said.
Another man who didn’t want to be identified said he is a health care worker, and “I just want to know if I can safely work with people and tell them I have those anti-bodies,” he said.
Several police officers went inside the testing site and were taken first. “We want to make sure they get their test as quickly as possible,” said one health care worker.
Frontline workers and essential workers are getting priority because of their direct interaction with people who are or may be infected with coronavirus every day.
Once pharmacies are able to do so, they’ll collect samples from any eligible New Yorker who wants a COVID-19 test. The samples will be sent to a lab, which will determine whether a patient had the virus.
Four New York City hospitals will conduct antibody testing for healthcare workers and first responders: Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, SUNY Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn and Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. These medical facilities had high numbers of COVID-19 cases.
Anti-body tests will be conducted on members of the NYPD, the MTA/transit workers and the New York State Police.
