New York State Now Has More Than 700 Testing Sites
Launches New Website for New Yorkers to Find Nearest COVID-19 Testing Sites
New Partnership with CVS to Bring Testing to More Than 60 PharmaciesAcross the State
Reminds New Yorkers in Need of Emotional Support to Call 1-844-863-9314 to Schedule a Free Appointment with a Mental Health Professional
State Has Distributed More Than Three Million Free Bottles of NYS Clean Hand Sanitizer to Date
Confirms 1,889 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 350,121; New Cases in 46 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "We set an initial goal, March 13 - seems like a lifetime ago, but it actually was right over a month. Six thousand tests a day, we were going to try to do and that sounded like a very ambitious goal. We then got to 10,000 tests a day, then got to 15,000 test per day, 20,000 thousand tests. I then met with the President and we talked about an institutional agreement between states and the federal government, where the federal government would help with the supply chain and getting materials to the national labs and the states would be responsible for organizing their labs. We said we were going to try to double our capacity at that time on April 21 or thereabouts and everybody said, 'Oh, you're being too aggressive, you can't do it, you can't do it.' I said, 'well, can I tell you, that's who I am.'"
Cuomo: "We're at doubling the goal. We're now at 40,000 tests per day. So that's May 17. We started with about 6,000 tests. So, we now have a really significant number of tests that we can do so much, so that per capita we are doing more than other countries -significantly more. Diagnostic tests by population, New York is 7.1. Italy is second, 4.1. Canada, USA, nationally is doing 3.3. We're double the national average. So, thank you to the Department of Health team and everybody who has been working so hard to do that. When you compare us to other states in the nation again we're double the percentage. Not raw numbers because we're bigger than many states, but by percentage we're much, much higher and this is a very big advantage for us because testing originally was used to control the virus"
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
