Days before Thanksgiving, New Yorkers again face long lines for COVID-19 tests

As COVID-19 positive test rates rise across the city and the holidays quickly approach, demand for coronavirus testing increases and New Yorkers once again find themselves waiting in line. waiting to get tested.

CityMD, which has 76 emergency care centers across the five boroughs, has the dubious honor of having some of the worst wait times for a free test.

The person in front of a particularly long CityMD Line on Atlantic Avenue near Nevins Street in Boerum Hill on Friday afternoon told Gothamist it took him four hours to reach the gate.

Just before 4 p.m., a CityMD employee came out to inform those who had just joined the back of that line that there was still a three-and-a-half to four-hour wait with a chance they would not show up. a test that day. .

“I’m unlikely to take a test tonight,” said Henry Hoffmann, who is in town in California and wants to take a test before heading to Washington, DC to see his family for Thanksgiving. “If I come tomorrow at 7 am, I can be the first there and take a test right away.”

CityMD doesn’t open until 9 a.m. on Saturdays, but the worker who came to talk to Hoffmann and others online told them it’s common for people to show up early. She said there were 50 people waiting when the site opened on Friday morning.

CityMD, which also has multiple locations on Long Island, Rockland and Westchester counties, and New Jersey, began closing all of its locations an hour and a half earlier this week. In an email to patients last week, the emergency care channel said, “Our site staff and doctors have been treating patients well beyond normal closing time for months now, and we have reached the point where they sacrifice their own safety and health. “

In response to a question from Gothamist about whether CityMD is taking action to meet increased demand, a spokesperson said on Friday that demand for COVID-19 testing “has never been higher.”

“…[W]We ask patients to plan accordingly. We are very proud of the hard work of our team to meet this increased demand, ”added the spokesperson.

Most people online at the Boerum Hill site on Friday said they were prepared for a long wait as they lived in the area and had already been on the line. Some brought books or friends to keep them company; two people had used hand games and a woman was bending over spreadsheets on her laptop while still online. Still, Hoffmann suggested that it might be best at this point to let people sign up for dates online.

New Yorkers who visited other CityMD sites this week reported similar wait times. A woman told Gothamist she waited almost three hours after arriving at Prospect Heights City® at 9.45 a.m.

Testing has increased in the city and state in recent months. On Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York State had performed a record number of tests, 207,907, on Friday.

A portion of those tested during this period include students. Earlier in the week, Cuomo and six other governors in the Northeast encouraged colleges and universities to offer tests to students before they leave campus for the Thanksgiving break to reduce the potential spread of the virus. The State University of New York has announced that it will complete the required test of 140,000 students early next week. SUNY students will now go completely remote well in the following semester.

According to state data, testing has more than doubled since September (the data is a mix of results from the week before the day on the chart).

In New York City, testing has increased by about 60% since September (data may be delayed by 3-4 days).

Eileen Clancy, who lives in the East Village, said she first tried CityMD on East 14th Street Wednesday night after starting to feel under the weather a few days earlier. When she arrived there, she discovered that someone had already been named as the last person to be seen that day. She then made her way to the West 14th Street location, where she waited three hours in the cold.

Clancy says CityMD, which is a private company, should work with the city to alleviate long lines, or at least improve the experience for people trying to get tested. “We’re all in the same boat,” she says. “People can’t just show up and be treated like crap. I saw someone who spent more than two hours there and who has just left.

While some people may consider lesser-known emergency care centers and their doctor’s offices, there are also nearly 70 walk-in sites operated by NYC Health + Hospitals. A person reported a long five-hour wait for a free test at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on Thursday. Friday, NYC Health + Hospitals tweeted at 12:47 p.m. that the Bellevue test center would not leave anyone else online that day. “Those who are already online will be seen,” the public health system said.

A spokesperson for NYC Health + Hospitals did not respond to a request for comment on what the city is doing to cope with increasingly long wait times for COVID-19 tests on some of its on Friday. Site (s.

Yet other city-run sites had more manageable expectations.

Margaret Bortner said the 1.5-hour wait at the city-run test site at Red Hook Recreation Center on Friday night seemed reasonable compared to the three-hour wait she saw at CityMD earlier in the day. Bortner was there with his sister, brother-in-law and young nephews and said the kids would not have been able to manage the three-hour queue.

It was the first time the group was tested. Bortner said one of his nephews attends a school where another student’s babysitter recently tested positive for COVID-19.

“We’re in a few places away from that, but we want to be careful,” Bortner said. “Plus, we would love to see our parents on Thanksgiving. They are also tested so that we can all be in the same room. “

Bortner said his group was taking other precautions as well, including mostly staying in their small group and trying to socialize outside.

Public health experts say if people are going to visit friends or family for the holidays this year, the best thing to do is quarantine beforehand. A negative test result does not necessarily mean that a person is not infected with COVID-19, as the tests are not foolproof and it can take days for a new infection to show up.

Abigail Hitchcock, who waited nearly three hours outside Boerum Hill CityMD on Friday, was considering her family’s Thanksgiving plans. She and her husband were being tested because they wanted to see Hitchcock’s father, who just turned 80, and his stepmother this weekend.

“We decided to take the opportunity to take the trip, even though people tell us not to travel,” she said. “He’s only been 80 once, so he’s just as comfortable with that.”

They could spend Thanksgiving with her mother, who plans to come to town for the day. “We might, at the last minute, decide not to bring her in or she might not feel comfortable,” Hitchcock said. “It’s pretty safe; all of this is very scary at the same time. We will therefore continue to play by ear, see how the rates are. “

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Where you can get a coronavirus test, from our test explicator:

For the full range of test sites, New York City refers users to a website search operated by health data company Castlight. Note that some clinics on the list may charge for tests. (Note: New York’s public hospital system, Health + Hospitals, has its own local labs that help reduce the time it takes to process test results, while clinics like CityMD rely on shipping samples to get them. results.)

For a full list of free, walk-in testing sites, New Yorkers can find convenient locations in:

There is also nine COVID-19 Express test sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, where tests are available by appointment.

The CityMD Emergency Care Clinic offers free testing to all uninsured New Yorkers under an agreement with the city.

Families and public school staff are welcome to visit one of the 22 priority test sites managed by the city’s health and hospital system. No appointment is necessary.