The other public hospitals offering tests as of Friday
Crowds throng a new test centre in Queens.
Early Friday, about 100 people lined up for coronavirus tests outside the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, one of several public hospitals that the city Health Department said on Thursday would begin testing people for the virus by appointment only.
The other public hospitals offering tests as of Friday included Bellevue, Harlem, Metropolitan, Kings County, Lincoln, Woodhull and Queens, officials said. Test centres are expected to open at Coney Island and Jacobi hospitals early next week. The city also plans to open several drive-through test sites at its hospitals.
Officials said they expected to test 150 people a day at each of the centres, which were created to ensure that New Yorkers with moderate to severe symptoms had access to tests without going to emergency rooms.
Those who have mild symptoms, are not over 50 or do not have underlying health conditions should continue to stay home, practice social distancing and consult their health care providers if their symptoms do not subside in three to four days.
New Jersey’s only drive-through test center exceeds capacity on its first day.
Officials in New Jersey said that more than 600 people had been tested by Friday afternoon at the state’s first drive-through testing center, quickly exceeding its New York News capacity and causing anyone not already in line to be turned away.
Governor Murphy said that people who were still hoping to be tested at the site, at Bergen Community College in Paramus, should try again Saturday morning. A second drive-through site, at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, is expected to open on Monday.
“To say there was pent-up demand would be the understatement of the century,” Mr. Murphy said on Friday.
The site was scheduled to close for the day at 4 p.m., and state officials said that only those in line by around 1:50 p.m. would be eligible for testing.
In Connecticut, officials in Darien decided to move the first drive-through testing center proposed for in the town because of “some logistics issues.” The center, which was supposed to open at Darien Town Hall, will instead open on Monday at Darien High School.
Some Darien residents had objected to the Town Hall location.
“Wow, this is maddening,” Luke Bronin, the mayor Press Release Distribution Services In New York City of Hartford, wrote on Twitter. “Public health needs to come before the convenience of homeowners offended by the location of the temporary test sites.”
The chief executive of a New Jersey hospital at the center of the state’s outbreak tests positive.
Holy Name Medical Center, a midsize community hospital in Teaneck, N.J., has been at the center of an outbreak in Bergen County, which has about a quarter of both the state’s confirmed cases and deaths from the virus.
The hospital has cleared its pediatric wing to make space for people infected with the virus, where 29 people are being held in isolation, and has carved its emergency room in two areas, creating a modified coronavirus wing.
On Friday, its chief executive, Mike Maron, said he had tested positive for the virus and was recovering at home.
“As soon as I began developing symptoms, I self-quarantined and was tested,” Mr. Maron said.
Holy Name has tested 453 people for the coronavirus in tents set up outside its emergency room and the hospital has treated 83 patients who tested positive.
Most buses in New York City will effectively be free as of Monday.
All local and select bus services in New York City will effectively be free starting on Monday as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the subway and buses, works to keep its operations going while also protecting employees.
The authority is asking riders to begin boarding buses through the rear door, which will allow for more space between riders and drivers at the front of buses, the agency said in a statement.
The changes do not apply to authority’s express bus lines. Riders must still those buses from the front and pay, although they will not be allowed in the first three rows of seats.
“Rear-door boarding will help ensure a safe social distance,” said Sarah Feinberg, New York City Transit’s interim president. “The safety of our employees and customers is Priority One.”
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