PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A local small business owner is organizing a weekly COVID-19 testing site for the restaurant industry, which will launch next month in Rittenhouse Square.
Philly restaurateur Nicole Marquis, who also founded Save Philly Restaurants, is behind the effort to open a test site for restaurant workers and their families.
"I one day received an email from my son's preschool saying that they were going to put in place free testing," she recalled, "and I thought how do they have free testing and we don't?"
Marquis looked into organizing testing for the restaurant industry and figured out a way to do that using CARES Act funding, so that testing would be free for Philadelphia restaurant workers and their families. Weekly testing begins January 7, at the Goat Restaurant in Rittenhouse Square.
"The owner, Fergus Carey, is opening up his currently closed down bar to allow potentially hundreds of workers to get tested each week," she said.
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One of the requirements of the testing site is that it serve at least 75 people a day.
"Some individual restaurants don't have 75 employees, but I thought hey, I have the Save Philly Restaurants coalition, I absolutely can get more than 75 restaurant workers to test."
Marquis has been critical of some of the decisions lawmakers have made for their restaurant industry amid COVID-19 and said there has been a lot of confusion among some restaurant workers when it comes to testing and who pays for it.
"It sure does shine a light on why the U.S. is by far the world leader in COVID cases and sadly, deaths," she remarked.
Moreover, she said the way the virus has been handled has had a negative impact on the hospitality industry.
"We all should have easy, free testing at this point to manage and mitigate the virus," she said.
Marquis added if there's a large turnout on January 7, the site could go from weekly free testing to daily free testing.
Interested restaurant workers should reach out to Aviva@hipcityveg.com for more information about a portal and login through which to register for COVID-19 testing.