Newly sworn-in Council Member Lincoln Restler announced that the testing site at McCarren Recreation Center (776 Lorimer Street) will be getting a new provider, in response to the exorbitant wait times for COVID-19 test results.
Though the arrival of a city-run testing site in Greenpoint came as a big relief to many locals struggling to get tested, Greenpointers has received numerous complaints that it was taking much longer than expected to receive results. In many cases, after a significant delay, the results of those tests become moot, causing a lot of frustration in the neighborhood.
BioReference Laboratories has served as the provider at site, but Council Member Restler said that Medrite will take over.
BioReference recently encountered some controversy after an incident where NFL employees were allowed to skip ahead in line at a testing site in East Midtown, Gothamist reported.
There has also been confusion over what time the McCarren testing site actually closes. It had previously been announced that the hours for the site would be 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM Monday – Friday, but many individuals showed up to the site and were told that they actually closed earlier at 7 PM.
Restler said that he would push for extended hours.
Greenpointers previously reported on the high rates of COVID-19 in the neighborhood. As of December 20, Greenpoint had “the fifth highest number of cases per resident in the five boroughs, with Williamsburg not far behind as the ninth highest.” Recent data shows that cases have leveled off a bit, but it is still important to be vigilant and keep testing regularly.