Hempstead Town, Mount Sinai Partner For Mobile COVID Testing

HEMPSTEAD TOWN, NY — The Town of Hempstead has provided a grant to Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital for it to purchase a mobile coronavirus testing van, which will be used in the future to distribute vaccines.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin announced the nearly $700,000 grant on Monday, which comes from the $133 million in federal CARES Act funding the town received last year. The mobile testing unit will be able to go into areas that are seeing spikes in coronavirus cases and provide more tests for those areas, which will help identify and isolate those who are sick. Testing — and future vaccines — is free.

"This pandemic has not hit every area equally. That is just, frankly, the truth," said Clavin. "By having this unit, in addition to other testing sites, we'll be able to target every community here in the Town of Hempstead."

In the future, when more vaccine doses are available, Clavin said South Nassau will be able to use the van as a mobile vaccination unit. That will help get the vaccine to the areas in the town that have been hardest-hit by the coronavirus.

"We, unfortunately, have seen how serious this pandemic is," said Dr. Aaron Glatt, the chair of medicine and infections disease at Mount Sinai South Nassau. "We've taken care of well over 2,000 patients in our hospital. And we've seen so much death in our hospital. So we've committed to doing everything we can at Mount Sinai South Nassau to stop this pandemic."

The Town of Hempstead and Mount Sinai South Nassau have already teamed up during the pandemic to provide testing sites for residents. The hospital set up a drive-through testing site at its main campus in Oceanside with funding from the town. Since December 5, it has tested more than 1,700 people.

The drive-through rapid testing is still available, and is offered free to Town of Hempstead residents. Town residents can call (516)390-2888 to make an appointment for a test.