Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday that New York State will contract with 28 private labs to increase testing capacity for the novel coronavirus. Following a call with the 28 labs, Cuomo said he instructed the labs to begin testing immediately, as soon as they are ready. The 28 labs are specialized in virology and are routine partners with the New York State Department of Health.
Earlier in the day, Cuomo blasted the slow-moving federal government for not leading the way with accelerated testing. “China was doing 200,000 tests a day. South Korea was doing 15,000 tests a day. We’ve done 5,000 to date. So what I would say, what I have been saying to other governors, is you’re on your own, you know. Let the states take action because when they do the retrospective here … I think this is going to be the public health version of Hurricane Katrina. The federal government has just fallen down on the job, so let the states do it,” said Cuomo. “We are getting very aggressive on the testing because if you look at the way it has been stopped in other countries, it’s either massive quarantine or massive testing and we don’t want to quarantine so we’re going to have to do the testing and we can’t wait for the federal government because it’s not going to happen.
“While the risk to New Yorkers remains low, we are taking a number of steps out of an abundance of caution to protect public health …,” said Cuomo. “At the same time, we’re continuing to prioritize ramping up testing capacity because the more people you identify as having the virus, the better you can contain it … Again I want to remind people to keep this in perspective: the facts do not justify the fear in this situation and the facts here should actually reduce anxiety.”
