NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Sen. Chuck Schumer called on the federal government Wednesday to send 100 mobile testing sites to New York City, saying they’re needed “ASAP” as “COVID is raging” in the five boroughs.
Schumer sent a letter to FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell, the former head of NYC Emergency Management, requesting authorization for the mobile sites.
The senator said FEMA had told him they'd send six sites.
“That ain’t close to enough given the magnitude of the crisis and what we need,” Schumer said as he joined Mayor Bill de Blasio at a City Hall briefing, where the senator was awarded the ceremonial “Key to the City.”
Schumer said he asked the federal government to start sending testing sites weeks ago.
“Now COVID is raging, the variant is raging,” he said, referring to the omicron variant, which the CDC now estimates makes up over 90% of new cases in the New York and New Jersey area.
“You see people lined up in every part of the city waiting to be tested,” Schumer said. “We need FEMA to do it ASAP.”
Schumer also urged FEMA to provide more at-home test kits, which the city recently requested from the feds.
President Joe Biden also announced Tuesday that the first new federally supported testing site will open in New York this week.
Meanwhile, the city is launching five city-run mobile sites that will focus on distributing more at-home rapid tests amid a crush of demand.
“We’re starting to get a little more supply—we need a whole lot more—but we will have, starting tomorrow, five city mobile distribution sites solely for the purpose of handing out at-home tests,” de Blasio said.
The mayor said he anticipated long lines would continue to form at testing sites, especially privately run sites, but he said “our job is to minimize the lines at the city-run sites and at our partner sites.”
De Blasio didn’t provide the locations of the new sites for at-home testing, but he said they would be posted Wednesday, presumably to the city’s testing portal at nyc.gov.
The city is also launching eight additional city-run testing sites, bringing the total number citywide to 119, up from 89, de Blasio said.
COVID-19 cases have surged in the city and state in recent weeks, with health officials pointing to the highly contagious omicron variant.
As recently as Dec. 13, the city had been averaging fewer than 3,600 new cases of COVID-19 each day. But after nearly 63,500 people tested positive in just five days, the average daily number of infections had climbed to nearly 11,000 as of Monday — an increase of 207% in a week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related
Related
Related
