This LabQ testing site on Columbus between 87th and 88th had short lines as of Tuesday afternoon. Photo by Jeff French Segall.
By Carol Tannenhauser
The city is hitting new Covid records, and people are waiting outside in freezing weather for hours to get tested. As cases rise, it can feel a little like March 2020 — but unlike the early days of the pandemic, there’s much more information out there and testing capacity is expanding.
Below are key websites for staying current about Covid rates in the neighborhood and throughout the City, and finding what you need, whether it’s a test or vaccination.
Positivity rates on the Upper West Side have spiked, though they’re still lower than the rest of the city. For Dec. 13-19:
10023: 8.14%
10024: 6.88%
10025: 8.13%
The city has opened new testing sites, including one in Manhattan at the Highbridge Park Rec Center at 2301 Amsterdam Avenue (173rd), and extended hours at existing ones. Richard Gottfried sent out the info below (click on the photos to see the images in detail):
Today, the City announced additional testing capacity and extended hours. See below for the new sites and all Manhattan locations. pic.twitter.com/ClUKJOvtqm
— Richard Gottfried (@DickGottfried) December 20, 2021
In addition, “Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that she is implementing a new portal that will allow residents to request at-home testing kits,” according to News 12 Brooklyn. “The state is expecting 2 million tests will be requested within the next two weeks and will be focusing on areas with low vaccination rates. Hochul says once the stockpile of tests is large enough, the state will open the portal to all New Yorkers.”
The tests will be PCR tests, which are generally more likely than antigen tests to detect the virus even if the person doesn’t have symptoms.
New York State officials will have more details later this week on an online portal for people to order PCR tests mailed to their homes overnight.
People will be able to swab themselves, put their swab in a prepaid envelope and get results within 48 hours, officials said.
— Luis Ferré-Sadurní (@luisferre) December 20, 2021
Kathryn Garcia, the state’s director of operations, said New York State also plans to call on the federal government to provide more tests, in an interview with The CITY.
President Biden says the government will distribute more than 500 million at-home tests in the coming weeks.
Now’s a great time to get the booster shot as city is offering 100 bucks for your troubles!
@Ben, shameful that people need to be bribed to act as responsible citizens. This pandemic will continue because of the unvaxxed among us. The stupidity of some people continue to amaze me…
FYI in addition to the overall contagious nature of omicron, there has been mention that Santa Con was a super spreader event
Yeah. I was in the Village last week. There were many, um, inebriated elves, Santas, and Mrs Clauses. None were wearing masks. And as it was a Saturday night in the Village it was wicked crowded.
FYI – the new Spider-Man movie sold I think 7 million tickets last weekend for the third largest grossing open for a movie ever. Seven million people indoors in theaters for 2+ hours ….. Likely often maskless as they ate popcorn. The insanity continues.
How did 10023 go from 1% to 8% positives in so short a time?
Does that mean masks aren’t helping or are fully vaccinated people no longer wearing masks even outside in the belief that they are protected by the vaccine? Or something else?
It’s hard to figure out how to protect yourself without some of this information. Many of us can’t really avoid leaving home–if only to food shop or go to a medical appointment.
Deliveries can increase the cost of food by quite a bit (33% or more). Not everyone can afford that.
The information you seek is available. In NYC, wear a better mask, or wear your mask better inside with unknown people. I cover my face outside anyway because it’s cold. The “Jabs” work to boost your body’s defenses. Their ability to limit O transmission is less than D transmission. Just be glad you don’t live in a heavy red state.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/new-york-omicron-covid-variant-hospital-er-1274121/amp/
It could be over in a few weeks, or it could get bad in -rump country. Take care if you’re vulnerable. We are all less vulnerable than we were 2 years ago. Live well, it might save you.
@JL
That’s an answer to a question I did not ask. I am looking for very specific information to understand why a supposedly compliant group of people in 10023-25 are suddenly getting high rates of COVID.
Some statistics of cause would be nice:
Are they people who are getting it no longer wearing masks in public spaces? Are they getting it at work? From travelling? From eating with friends/family in restaurants? Are the masks which protected before no longer as protective? These sorts of information.
Unless we know why and where the transmissions are happening it will be very difficult for the City to try to figure out policies to limit opportunities for transmission. And difficult for everyone to decide which activities are safe for them and which are not: e.g. food shopping, doctor visits, school.
Possibly several factors:
The overall higher transmission of omicron.
Increase in testing.
Students/young adults back home (10023-10025) for the holidays.
Interestingly, when I was standing in line last week, there were several tourists (international) getting tested for the flight back home.
One reason positive test rates are higher is that people are testing more. This is not a Trump joke. But due to travel and news about Omicron more of us are getting tested even if we don’t have symptoms. This is especially true in zip codes like ours.
Months ago, who among us would have gotten tested? We might have had covid, but would never have known it.
The rates in the population might have gone up dramatically or just the known rates. We’l probably never know.
They will never get the level of granularity and detail you want. There is never perfect information.
Wear a well-fitted mask at all times. Limit your time in close proximity to others, especially indoors. You can go food shopping but do it at less crowded times and be quick about it. I went to the store at the height of covid in spring 2020 and saw people spending five minutes looking for the perfect tomato. Grab a tomato and move on. They were exposing themselves more and were also being selfish as others were waiting to get in.
The wait time for test results is incredibly long to the point where the value of testing is greatly diminished. I am still waiting for results from a Saturday test and know of several other people experiencing the same. There seems to be little to no focus on expanding test processing. The conducting of a record number of tests is of very little value if people need to wait 5 days for results
Precisely!! I went there too. There was no point to being tested if it takes that long to get results.
Certainly in NYC people did everything the ‘experts’ asked of them and are jabbed at a high rate—time for an explanation of how it could have gone so wrong and things are closing again—the ease with which many ppl blame the unjabbed is vile—many of them know they had it and have antibodies and are no risk to anyone—time for a new approach—these ‘experts’ have failed—isn’t it obvious?
The virus mutated significantly because so many people were unvaccinated.
I wish the Covid test site didn’t have to be in the middle of the 77th Street Greenmarket. Wanted to drop my compost, but would have had to cross the line for testing to do it. It went into city trash instead.
nyc.gov’s mobile vaccine truck at 77th CPW is giving $100 to walk-ins from anywhere.
I chatted with people in line. Some are coming from other States like MD, PA while school is in off-season. It’s easy to visit NYC as a day trip. $100 can pay off traveling expense and meal. What a wonderful thing that nyc.gov does! Economy circulate around the city business.
wow I did not know that non-New Yorkers would be getting $100.
Boosters are not in short supply anywhere in the country and by the time these folks get their $100 they will be home to spend that money. This is just another backwards idea from Deblasio.
So what, if it got people to get the shot; whatever! Some people are unhappy no matter what. One more week til y’all are saying the same stuff but replacing De Blasio’s name with Adams’.
Since last week there seem to be many more mobile testing sites on the West Side…
Several different companies – not just Labq which has been situated for months.
Are all these legitimate?
Wondering how all these different companies are able to start up, have the resources, lab capacity etc?
WSR – Could this be researched?
While some are busy blaming the unjabbed remember this is in animal reservoirs too -a majority of white tail deer test positive and it is mutating there-cats skunks etc—you could put all the unvaxxed away but the animals will still getcha!
@Sb Yeah, you’re going to run into plenty of deer, cats and skunks at restaurants, concerts or other public gatherings in the city…
Why do you seem so insistent on letting vaccine refusers off the hook for their selfishness and ignorance?
Went here today to be tested. It takes 5 days to get a result! That is not helpful! Half the city could be infected if it takes that long to get a result. Once again NY is caught flat-footed!!! Can’t seem to walk and chew gum at the same time. I was in Rome 2 weeks ago. Got tested twice at a pharmacy. Took me less than 5 minutes to know the results.
I had not heard that Kathryn Garcia got a new job. I am thrilled they are staying active in public life…a very skilled bureaucrat and someone who might make a good mayor one day!
I’m glad I didn’t wait… although I wouldn’t mind be thanked with $100 from the city. Also, I wonder if the city is teaching anti-vaxxers that if they’ll be rewarded for being bad citizens, thus increasing the time they have to spread the virus. Perhaps a better move would be to offer a reward only to those who were vaxxed!