NYC Coronavirus Testing Capacity To Increase To 5K A Day: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — New York City will begin a new novel coronavirus testing effort Thursday that will increase testing capacity to 5,000 a day, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.

BioReference Libraries will work with New York City Health + Hospitals in hospitals and clinics and the focus will be on those who are currently hospitalized, medically in danger or those who are most vulnerable, such as healthcare workers, de Blasio said.

"We're going to be very careful about the prioritizing of this test," said de Blasio. "And we're going to stick to those priorities."

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Results will be produced in between one and two days, half the pace of current private labs, said the mayor.

The city is past the point when it can test those who don't need hospitalization, Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said.

This means only those with three days of unabated symptoms — fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath — should contact a doctor, but any New Yorker showing even mild symptoms should stay home, she said.

"With widespread community transmission," said Barbot, "New Yorkers are more likely to get COVID-19 from their neighbor than someone who has traveled."

New Yorkers should assume they've already been exposed to COVID-19 in some manner, said Barbot.

The announcement with the warning that de Blasio would make a decision on a shelter-in-place order within the next 48 hours.

"New Yorkers should be prepared right now for a shelter-in-place order," de Blasio said. "It has not happened yet, but it is a definite possibility at this point."