New York State will have the capacity to conduct thousands of tests to detect the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) starting next week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Friday
NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th March, 2020) New York State will have the capacity to conduct thousands of tests to detect the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) starting next week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Friday.
"We will have thousands of tests available next week," Cuomo told reporters.
Cuomo was speaking at the opening of New York's first drive-through mobile testing center in New Rochelle in Westchester County, the largest cluster of the novel virus cases in the United States.
The governor said the new facility has six operating lanes and will serve about 200 vehicles a day. Each car will take approximately 15 minutes to conduct the testing.
Cuomo also said if the US Federal government authorizes New York to decentralize testing and use local laboratories for this purpose, the state would have the capacity to complete many more COVID-19 tests.
"Our strategy in this state is to slow the spread of the virus," Cuomo said. "There are two ways to do that: first, reduce the density, reduce the concentration of people... the second leg of this strategy is testing."
On Tuesday, Cuomo announced the deployment of National Guard troops to a Health Department command post in New Rochelle and created a one-mile radius containment area.
