Camden County officials opened the county’s first coronavirus testing site with help from local health care providers.
“In this moment of national crisis, we can’t serve separately and apart. But we have to come together to combine our resources and to combine our knowledge and combine our best practices,” says Virtua Health Executive Vice President Reg Blaber.
Virtua Cooper, CAMcare and Camden County are all working together to get the testing site off the ground. It is located at Cooper’s Poynt Park in Camden. The site will be opened to all county residents who make an appointment and have a doctor’s note. It will also be open to those without health insurance.
“If you walk up here today and you’re showing the symptoms and you don’t have a ‘script, we’re not turning you away,” says Camden County Freeholder Jonathan L. Young, Sr. “But if you don’t have symptoms, you’ll get some kind of level of care here.”
As for the testing site that has been set up for weeks at Camden County College – Rep. Donald Norcross says that he is hoping FEMA will take it over.
“We believe it’s going there. We had a discussion with FEMA yesterday. We are just waiting for the final go-ahead,” Norcross says.
Camden County has the most cases of the virus in southern New Jersey. And a Wawa on Route 70 in Cherry Hill was shut down on Wednesday after a worker tested positive.
"We are working with the local Department of Health regarding notifications to any associate who may have had close contact with the associate. The last day the associate worked was March 24,” a spokesperson for Wawa says in a statement.
The store will reopen once it is cleaned and sanitized. Freeholder Young is urging all residents in the county to stay home.
“It’s tough for everybody, but you just have to get through it,” he says.
The testing site in Camden will be open Monday through Friday for the next two weeks from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. Officials say that they are anticipating administering about 60 tests per day.