1st East Coast Drive-Thru Testing Located in Lower Hudson Valley
The first public drive-thru coronavirus testing facility on the east coast can be found in the Lower Hudson Valley.
On Thursday, during a novel coronavirus briefing, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the first public drive-through testing facility on the east coast will start testing people on Friday in New Rochelle. Testing will be done by appointment only. New Rochelle residents who have been quarantined will be tested first, officials say.
In New York State, as of Thursday afternoon, there are 325 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York, including 95 in New York City and 148 in Westchester County. Many are in New Rochelle, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a coronavirus "containment zone."
In order to increase testing capacity, New York State is contracting with BioReference Laboratories to run an additional 5,000 tests per day on top of what the state is already doing. These additional 5,000 tests per day will come online next week. This additional testing capacity is on top of that of the 28 private labs the Governor announced are partnering with the state in the coming days and weeks.
Ulster County Executive Patrick K. Ryan declared a State of Emergency on Thursday after announcing two more residents received positive test results for COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in Ulster County to four.
Dutchess and Orange counties have both confirmed one resident in each county tested positive for COVID-19. Dutchess County is currently monitoring 24 cases. The person who tested positive was one of those 24. 22 of the 24 are under precautionary quarantine. Two are under mandatory quarantine.
The Orange County resident with coronavirus was a patient who went to Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in the City of Newburgh. The person is presently hospitalized and isolated. The hospital has furloughed a number of its workers, officials confirmed.