Airport testing to remain through the holidays

Mobile testing will be available at LaGuardia Airport starting Dec. 5. Photo via NYC Health + Hospitals

By Rachel Vick

Queens residents and travelers passing through LaGuardia Airport will still have access to COVID-19 testing, NYC Health + Hospitals announced over the weekend after saying the site would shutter last week.

Despite the closure of the static site in the airport on Dec. 4, the New York City Test and Trace Corps will continue to serve the area with a mobile testing van through the holiday season.

‘While LaGuardia will be transitioning to mobile testing, we are also doubling our mobile fleet, and offering at-home PCR testing to international travelers, close contacts, people over the age of 65, and/or those who are immunocompromised,” H+H spokesperson Adam Shrier told the Eagle. “Testing is a critically important tool in our fight against COVID, and we encourage all New Yorkers and travelers to get tested and to be vaccinated, if they have not been so already.”

Shrier said the agency will work “hand in hand” with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to determine the hours and location of the van.

Last week, H+H told the Eagle that the LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airport test sites would be closing by the end of the first week of December but did not offer a reason why.

“We recognize that the NYC Health + Hospitals COVID testing site at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B Garage was utilized heavily by the airport and local community,” a Port Authority spokesperson told the Eagle on Tuesday. “Although the last day that test site will operate is December 4, the Port Authority is working closely with NYC H+H and other stakeholders to provide mobile and other convenient testing options, at or around the airport.”

While the solution is one welcomed by community members as an alternative to the reduction in testing availability, Community Board 6 Chair Alexa Weitzman said some concerns about the switch in operation styles remain.

“Sometimes messaging [about the availability of mobile sites] can be confusing which is why permanent sites are important — they know it's there and that's why people go,” Weitzman told the Eagle. “New Yorkers use that site because it's always open, it’s free and easily accessible, you can park.”

“Our role in all of this is advocating for the health and safety of community members and believe test sites should be recurring mobile sites into the new year… we really hope it's going to continue,” Weitzman added. “I am really thrilled with the outcome because it's clearly what Queens, New York City and the community need and that's even more clear with this new variant. We need to maintain the current test sites if not expand — that was clear once the word was out that it was closing, that it was not in the best interest of the community.”

H+H did not announce plans to create a mobile site at JFK.

Weitzman said that at the end of the day, “H +H has done an amazing job over the pandemic and… health decisions should be left to that agency.”

In addition to the hospital corporation’s commitment to maintaining testing at the airport, it will double their mobile fleet to serve over 1,000 unique locations in partnership with local organizations and agencies.

The city and state have both renewed emergency executive orders as reports of the transmissible Omicron variant spread.

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said that though are no confirmed Omicron cases in the city, the continued need for regular testing remains as winter weather and holidays push gatherings indoors.

“We still have a lot to learn about the Omicron variant, but its emergence lends urgency to the importance of the precautions we've all become familiar with, particularly vaccination, masking, and testing,” Chokshi said during the Mayor’s daily briefing. “Coming out of the holiday weekend, it's very important that those who traveled or gathered get tested if you haven't already. “

The agency is issuing an advisory recommending masks be worn at all times while in indoor public settings.

PANYNJ did respond to request for comment.