New Coronavirus Testing Site To Open In Washington Heights: Mayor

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Washington Heights will be getting a new coronavirus testing site next week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

The neighborhood is one of two — the second in Midwood in Brooklyn — where the city will add a testing site for COVID-19 as part of a plan to double testing at its public hospitals and health clinics, the mayor said. The Washington Heights site will be at the Highbride Recreation Center.

The Washington Heights and Midwood sites will be joined by 10 others the last week of May.

"We have to keep expanding rapidly," de Blasio said at his daily press conference. "It’s absolutely a requirement if we’re gong to win this fight to have testing be widespread."

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There are currently about 14,000 coronavirus tests done per day across New York City, 5,000 of which are through the city's public health system. The 12 new sites will increase the tests at public health centers to about 10,700 per day, de Blasio said.

After Washington Heights and Midwood, sites will be added to East Harlem, Woodside in Queens, Fordham Manor and Melrose in the Bronx, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Canarsie in Brooklyn, and Port Richmond, Concord and Prince’s Bay on Staten Island.

The new Washington Heights testing site will join several others that have opened in Uptown Manhattan the past few weeks.

In Inwood, a site recently opened in a tent at the Dyckman Clinica De Las Americas at the 175 Nagle Ave.

There is also a coronavirus testing spot, opened by the nonprofit SOMOS Community Care, at 2360 Amsterdam Ave. That site was the first bilingual testing site that is not accessed by a drive-through, SOMOS said.

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