Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Cuomo announced that New York State has doubled testing capacity to reach 40,000 diagnostic tests per day, and encouraged eligible New Yorkers to visit a new website to find a nearby testing site. Today’s announcement comes three weeks after the Governor announced an agreement for New York State to work with the federal government to grow New York’s daily testing capacity from 20,000 tests a day to 40,000 tests a day.
The state’s diagnostic testing criteria now includes all individuals who would return to the workplace in phase one of the state’s reopening plan. New Yorkers eligible for diagnostic testing now include:
- Any individual who has COVID-19 symptoms;
- Any individual who has had contact with a person known to be positive with COVID-19;
- Any individual who is subject to a precautionary or mandatory quarantine;
- Any individual who is employed as a health care worker, nursing home worker or first responder;
- Any essential worker who directly interacts with the public while working; and
- Any individual who would return to the workplace in phase one of the state’s reopening plan.
The Governor also announced the launch of a new website where New Yorkers can easily find the nearest COVID-19 testing sites. New Yorkers can visit coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-testing and enter their address to view a list and a map view of the nearest testing sites. The state has also partnered with Google Maps to display testing site results. New Yorkers can search “COVID testing near me” on Google Maps to easily find the nearest testing sites.
The Governor also announced New York State is partnering with CVS to bring testing to more than 60 CVS pharmacies across the state. Each site will be able to conduct 50 or more tests per day.
The Governor also reminded New Yorkers in need of emotional support to call the New York State Emotional Support Hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment with a mental health professional. New Yorkers can access additional mental health resources at headspace.com/ny.
The Governor also announced that the state has distributed over three million free bottles of NYS Clean hand sanitizer to date, including:
- More than 275,000 bottles to the MTA
- 188,492 bottles to NYCHA
- More than 117,000 bottles to food banks
- 32,512 bottles to farms via CCEs
- 24,060 bottles to BOCES
“Throughout this entire pandemic, testing was key to controlling the virus and now it will be key to monitoring the virus as we begin reopening in regions across the state,” Governor Cuomo said. “New York has worked aggressively to build a massive statewide sample collection network and is now testing more than any state or country per capita, but our new problem is we have more sites and capacity than we’re actually using. The more New Yorkers get tested, the better — and we are going to ensure to all individuals who will return to the workplace in phase one of our reopening plan have access to testing, and we are launching a new website to make it easier for New Yorkers to find nearby testing sites.”
Finally, the Governor confirmed 1,889 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 350,121 confirmed cases in New York State.
