Testing teams headed to WNY after spike in Covid-19 cases

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 August 2020 at 2:18 pm

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that free rapid testing sites will be opening in Western New York after a spike in Covid-19 cases.

The testing SWAT teams will be available in partnership with Kaleida Health, Erie County Medical Center, and Catholic Health. Eight new testing sites will open this Saturday.

Sites will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Saturday through Wednesday. All residents are eligible for tests and appointments can be made by calling 833-NYSTRNG (697-8764).

Some of the sites will be available in Niagara County. Orleans County is in the Finger Lakes Region, where the positivity rate for Covid-19 was 0.5 percent on Monday and Tuesday, and 0.6 percent on Wednesday. In the five-county WNY, the rate was 1.8 percent, 1.4 percent and 2.0 percent the past three days.

New York State will deploy 50 rapid testing machines to support the effort and will deploy more as needed. All tests are free of charge and the results will support the contact tracing efforts being conducted to monitor and control the virus spread.

“In Western New York, we have a caution flag out and we’re going to fly it a little higher today. The region’s infection rate was 2 percent yesterday, which is not good news,” Governor Cuomo said. “We’re going to deploy a SWAT team from the Department of Health that is going to conduct additional testing at eight sites in the region using Abbott testing machines, which provide same-day results literally within the hour. We’re focusing on Western New York and we’re going to continue to focus on it. Thank you to our partners Kaleida Health, Erie County Medical Center and Catholic Health for their assistance with this effort.”

A list of the eight new testing sites includes: