Appointment-only antibody testing will be offered in Morrisania, East New York, Upper Manhattan, Concord, and Long Island City beginning next week
Edited by: JV Staff
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced expanded antibody testing for New Yorkers. Through a partnership with BioReference labs, the City will conduct its own antibody survey at community testing sites in the five boroughs to better understand the spread of COVID-19. The survey will test approximately 70,000 New Yorkers over an initial two-week period, with the capacity to administer up to 5,000 tests per day.
“So many New Yorkers are wondering whether they’ve had the virus, or if they’ve exposed their own families,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio “While antibody tests are not a fix-all solution, they will give our communities the knowledge they need to help us defeat this virus together.”
BioReference is supporting the city in its epidemiology studies of the presence of COVID-19 throughout large segments of the New York City population,” said Jon R. Cohen, M.D., Executive Chairman of BioReference Laboratories. “For New York, a city that has been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this type of information will be of great value in helping healthcare professionals to analyze the presence and progression of the disease in order to identify at risk populations for possible early intervention.”Antibody Tests
Beginning next week, antibody testing will be offered on an appointment-only basis for approximately two weeks in the Morrisania, East New York, Upper Manhattan, Concord, and Long Island City. Scheduling will open this Friday by dedicated hotline, and individual test results will be available in 24-48 hours.
Through a partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services and CDC, the City will also administer 140,000 antibody tests for healthcare workers and first responders across FDNY, DOC, NYPD, and hospitals citywide. Through a separate initiative, NYC Health + Hospitals has now tested over 8,000 healthcare workers for antibodies across its 11 hospitals.
Phone-a-Clinician Hotline at 844-NYC-4NYC
To expand access to care for New Yorkers who have symptoms or questions about COVID-19, NYC Health + Hospitals will continue to grow the capacity of its free Phone-a-Clinician Hotline at 844-NYC-4NYC to be able to handle 120,000 calls a month. With this expansion, Health + Hospitals will aim to provide 16,000 tele-visits to New Yorkers a week via the hotline, accounting for roughly 80 percent of the City’s ambulatory visits. NYC Health + Hospitals has also now completed 60,000 billable H+H Tele-health visits at more than 300 clinics citywide since beginning of crisis.
Support for Survivors of Domestic and Gender-Based Violence
The Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) will convene a COVID-19 response work group to prevent acts of domestic gender-based violence and support survivors during the pandemic.
The work group will engage a diverse group of 20 providers representing multi-disciplinary services for survivors across the City including shelter, legal services, counseling and mental health services. Providers from both small and large community-based organizations will have representation in the working group, with an emphasis on those serving diverse communities citywide.
Earlier last week, Mayor de Blasio announced local manufacturers are ramping up production of critical testing supplies to create 50,000 COVID-19 test kits per week for New York City.
“There’s no challenge too big for New Yorkers – and I’m proud to see our medical and manufacturing community join forces to make our city a self-sufficient source of the tests we’ll need to get through this crisis,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Rebuilding a fairer and better New York City starts with conducting a rigorous testing program in every borough, and they’ll help us ensure a safe and responsible recovery.”
Testing kits primarily consist of two main components: a nasopharyngeal swab to collect a sample and a tube of transport medium, a liquid that preserves the collected sample while it is transferred to a lab for testing.
In close coordination with NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) is working with Manhattan-based Print Parts to produce swabs. EDC is also partnering with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx to produce transport medium. EDC will contract with a local company to assemble the two components into completed kits.
The City has also identified interim sources of transport medium and is in conversation with other local manufacturers to create testing supplies.
“Large-scale testing is absolutely critical for New York City’s reopening and recovery,” said James Patchett, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “Local production of these test kits is another example of how the City has tapped into the creativity and innovation of NYC businesses and institutions to solve what seemed to be an insurmountable challenge. Whether it is test kits, face shields, gowns or bridge ventilators, we’ve seen firsthand the extraordinary ability of New York City to adapt and rise above. At EDC we’re incredibly proud to be part of these efforts that exemplify the very best of our city.”
“These critical testing supplies will ensure that NYC Health + Hospitals can continue to prioritize testing to vulnerable and at-risk populations during our response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. “We are grateful for this collaboration as it is a shining example of how the private sector has supported the public health system and our heroic healthcare workers.”
Print Parts, an additive manufacturing service, is producing 3D printed swabs based on a clinically validated design from EnvisionTec and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. It is expected to deliver 30,000 swabs at the end of this week and will ramp up to 50,000 a week in subsequent weeks.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is complimenting those efforts by following a CDC protocol to produce transport medium for the testing kits. Initial production will begin this week and will produce at scale after further testing and approval.
In only three weeks, EDC worked closely with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and H+H to create a local supply chain producing swabs, an essential testing component. EDC spoke with experts in 3D printing and consulted with medical, laboratory, and manufacturing experts across the country.
Using that knowledge, the EDC-led team built partnerships with leading manufacturers, assemblers and academic laboratories across the five boroughs to review swab designs and manufacturing plans, secure sterilization firms, bring an academic lab back online for sterile production of transport medium, and secure local distribution and packaging rights to better support our front line medical professionals.
“We are honored to support New York City during these difficult times,” said Robert Haleluk, founder and CEO of Print Parts. “We have been working closely with the city government and various industry partners to rapidly scale our production capabilities and begin providing these critical testing supplies that will be essential to getting our city back on its feet.”
