Two new COVID-19 testing sites
opened today at the Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton and the Community College
in Haskell.
It is the result of
a partnership between the New Jersey Department of Health and Vault Health, who
will be administering the saliva-based tests.
“Here in Trenton,
we have 500 available,” says Dr. Myles Spar, national medical director at Vault
Health. “In Passaic, we have at least 500, possibly up to 2,000
available, but we should be able to meet the demand.”
Those
are just the rapid tests. Saliva-based PCR tests are also available. Those
results will come back next day. Many people standing in line hope to get the all-clear
to see family and friends this weekend.
“I have an elderly
grandmother who just got out of the hospital, not for COVID but for
pneumonia actually, and we just want to make sure if we’re going to be
seeing her at all, which we might not be, that we’re ready and
protecting everybody to the best of our ability,” says Nicole Yuhas, of Hamilton.
The Trenton site is only open today this week, with more
dates next week. The Passaic location will be open Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. The goal is to make the tests more readily available in the new year.
“We want to be in
all 21 counties,” says Spar. “The state is offering free testing to all New
Jersey residents, and the counties just need to help us find spaces to
work. And otherwise we’re willing to be there, so the
expectation is by the second week of January we should be in all 21 counties.”
Vault Health is also the provider
for the at-home tests that you can request through the state. It says that
more than 70,000 tests were ordered by residents in the first week.