Still no COVID-19 testing site in Jamaica, despite Cuomo’s vague promise
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A medical worker gestures at a COVID-19 testing station at The Brooklyn Hospital Center. AP Photo/John Minchillo
By David Brand
There is still no COVID-19 testing site in Jamaica, a week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would establish a clinic in the neighborhood to serve black and Latino New Yorkers disproportionately impacted by the spread of the coronavirus.
In a vague April 9 press release, Cuomo said the undisclosed site would open this week. As of Thursday afternoon, there was no such site.
Though the governor’s announcement did not include a specific location, people familiar with negotiations said the state planned to establish the appointment-only testing site at the Queens Health Center on Sutphin Boulevard, a few blocks south of the Sutphin Boulevard subway station and JFK AirTrain hub.
The person who answered the phone at Queens Health Center Thursday said the plan had been suspended. She said a manager would contact the Eagle to provide more information but would likely be delayed because of a high call volume as local residents seek medical help or information.
State Sen. Leroy Comrie said another testing site will likely open tomorrow at First Presbyterian Church, located at 89-60 164th St. in Jamaica, instead.
“I’m told First Presbyterian will open tomorrow and Sutphin Boulevard will open next Friday,” Comrie said.
He blamed the delays on state bureaucracy.
“All of a sudden the lawyers want to get involved because they haven’t worked with community health centers,” he said. “Every time you think there’s a location there’s some mumbo jumbo and it won’t work. There’s some frustration.”
At least 884 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in zip code 11435, where the Queens Health Center is located. The rate of COVID-19 — 14.9 per 1,000 people — among residents of that zip code is 12 percent higher than the city average, according to a ProPublica analysis of confirmed cases.
The coronavirus has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx New Yorkers, who have died from complications of COVID-19 at almost twice the rate of their white and Asian peers, according to demographic reports published by the city’s Heatlh Department.
“We need more testing in Jamaica,” Comrie said. “There’s no way we can really open our businesses until we know how many people are infected. We want to do as much testing as possible so we can get some real metrics so we can restart the economy.”
Southeast Queens is served by just two overburdened hospitals — Jamaica Hospital and St. John’s Episcopal Hospital.
The Jamaica site would become the third non-hospital testing location in Southeast Queens, after a temporary clinic opened in the parking lot of Aqueduct Race Track in South Ozone Park and another at the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center in Far Rockaway.
City officials say another site at York College is also in the works.
Cuomo pledged April 9 “to increase testing and open new testing sites to collect more data in African-American and Latino communities so we can better understand why this virus kills and has higher fatality rates in certain communities, and what we can do to address it.”
Cuomo’s Office did not respond to emails seeking more information about the testing on April 9 or Thursday.
