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Friday, March 29, 2024

Does NYS Really Have Authority to Approve Local Coronavirus Testing Labs???

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By: Rusty Brooks

The Trump administration has granted New York state authority to approve local labs to conduct Covid-19 testing, which will drastically increase the state’s capacity to diagnose people, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday afternoon, Crain’s reported. 

From the New York government site: 

After weeks of demanding federal approval, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the FDA has approved New York State to authorize the state’s 28 public and private labs to begin manual, semi-automated and automated testing for novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. The approval also extends to the Roche high-volume platform for testing. The Governor has made increasing capacity a priority, and these approvals will increase the state’s testing capacity dramatically – from 3,000 to date to about 6,000 per day in the next week.

As of press, New York State has identified more infected individuals than any other state, Crain’s reported. 

“The better you are at testing, the more you test, the more you can reduce the spread,” Cuomo said. 

“The number one thing we have to do in this state to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus is to increase testing, and the federal government has created a testing bottleneck nationwide with their slow response in lifting restrictions for states to authorize testing,” Governor Cuomo said. “New York State has 28 laboratories that can start testing immediately, and these new approvals will allow the state to dramatically increase testing capacity and get it to where it needs to be to find the positive cases, isolate those individuals and more quickly stop the spread. We’re dealing with the virus, but we’re also dealing with the fear and anxiety New Yorkers are facing, and we’re taking new actions every day as this situation evolves to address both.”

The state has also taken some measures to help people financially effected by lack of work due to drastic steps taken by New York to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

 The governor issued executive Order waiving 7-Day waiting period for workers to Claim Unemployment Insurance due to COVID-19 and Eliminating Aid Penalty for Schools Directed to Close. 

From the NY State website: The Governor also directed the New York State Department of Public Service to suspend public utilities from cutting off service – including power and heat – to customers affected by COVID-19. The State’s major utilities will take immediate action to suspend service shutoffs to households during the COVID-19 outbreak and will continue to offer deferred payment plans for customers struggling financially due to the outbreak.

In a large City like New York, a pandemic like coronavirus is an extremely complex issue to manage, not only identifying victims, preventing the spread, dealing with economic implications, financial relief of families and individuals effected and more.

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