After ’21 days of hell’ New York governor expands coronavirus testing

New York will on Saturday begin conducting antibody tests for workers at four hospitals hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic and will allow local pharmacies to begin collecting samples for diagnostic tests, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The renewed focus on testing comes as the crisis appears to be subsiding in New York, with hospitalizations for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, falling to their lowest in three weeks, Cuomo told a daily briefing on Saturday.

“Twenty one days of hell, and now we are back to where we were 21 days ago,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “Testing is what we are compulsively or obsessively focused on now.”

Cuomo said antibody testing of workers at four downstate hospitals would begin on Saturday, including at Elmhurst Hospital, where at least 13 patients died from COVID-19 in a 24-hour span late last month in a development that brought the depth of the crisis into focus for many Americans.