City set to open Queens Hospital Center COVID-19 testing site for older adults

A COVID-19 testing site will open at Queens Hospital Center Monday. Photo via the Health and Hospital Corporation

By David Brand

A new COVID-19 testing site will open Monday at Queens Hospital Center as the city seeks to ramp up testing capacity, said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Queens Hospital Center, located off the Grand Central Parkway in Hillcrest, is one of five city-run medical sites — one in each borough — where a new testing clinic will be located, de Blasio said at a press conference Friday.

The site will be a walk-in facility for people with preexisting conditions who are 65 or older, de Blasio said. Local residents must call 311 to schedule an appointment and the five sites will administer a combined 2,400 tests per week, he added. 

“We want to reach everyone we can reach to keep people safe, that's the bottom line, and to particularly keep those safe who are most vulnerable,” he said.

The city and state have gradually increased testing capacity in Queens, though certain communities, particularly in Southeast Queens have been slow to receive testing sites.

An appointment-only testing clinic opened at First Presbyterian Church, located at 89-60 164th St. in Jamaica Friday, according to State Sen. Leroy Comrie’s office. 

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s April 9 pledge to open a site in Jamaica, likely at the Queens Health Center on Sutphin Boulevard, within a week has gone unfulfilled.