COVID Update: Testing In Nutley Will Continue, Officials Say

NUTLEY, NJ — No matter what side of the fence they fall on coronavirus controversies, there’s one thing nearly all Nutley residents can agree on: the pandemic will go down as one of the most stressful experiences in their lifetime.

Nutley officials recently gave an update on the town’s ongoing battle against COVID-19, including testing efforts amid the omicron surge.

“Like everyone else, COVID hit our township like a hurricane,” said Mayor Mauro Tucci, who contracted the virus along with double pneumonia in April 2020.

“It was and still is an incredibly frightening experience to endure, so we put in measures to try and help our residents as quickly as possible,” Tucci said.

According to Tucci, those measures included setting up testing and vaccine clinics at the Nutley Parks and Recreation Department. In the spring of 2020, town officials reached out to Medi Mobile, a medical service company that provides COVID testing on site, and were able to schedule testing at the Parks and Recreation building.

In another landmark, the Nutley health department was able to secure its first COVID vaccines for distribution and held two testing clinics in December of 2020. Nutley conducted 30 clinics between February and December, including in-person vaccine clinics, home visits for elderly and homebound residents, and most recently, booster vaccine clinics for residents and individuals that work in town.

Locally, the demand for COVID-19 testing has increased dramatically due to the omicron variant, officials said. In response, the town has continued to offer weekly virus and antibody testing at the Parks and Recreation building, 44 Park Avenue.

Recently, Tucci announced that the testing would be expanded to four days a week. It will take place on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Clinic dates and times can be found online at the municipal website.

“Everyone is still under an incredible amount of stress, and rightly so,” Tucci said last week.

“We will continue to do this as long as necessary,” he added, referring to the town’s COVID-19 testing. “The safety of our residents is always our top priority. We are willing to do whatever we can to help keep them healthy and stop the spread of this horrible virus.”

“It’s been rewarding to see our township’s departments joining forces for the good of the community,” Department of Public Affairs Commissioner John Kelly III said.

“Our clinics would not be possible without the great team effort between our department, Parks and Recreation and Public Safety’s emergency squad,” Kelly added.

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