Hundreds lined up in Englewood for Day One of free walk-up COVID-19 testing out of a new Bergen County van. The mobile test site offers a saliva test to determine if people currently have the virus — even if they don’t have symptoms — and an antibody blood test to see if they’ve already had COVID-19, and recovered. Mobile testing is part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s vision for reopening New Jersey.
“This is in lockstep with what the gov is trying to accomplish, with making sure that we have access to testing every possible way and venue that we can offer,” said Deborah Visconi, president and CEO of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.
“Every day we take another step forward to ramping up our testing capacity. And not only will there be more testing, there will be more places where you can get tested,” the governor said during his daily press briefing.
Murphy Tuesday unveiled his broad plan to double statewide testing, prioritizing health care workers and vulnerable people. It’s the second benchmark on his six-step road to reopening. The governor said every resident and staff member at New Jersey’s COVID-ravaged long-term care facilities will be tested by May 26. He also announced a new standing order from the Department of Health for testing without a doctor’s prescription.
“This is of particular importance for our communities of color, which have been disproportionately ravaged by COVID-19. And so our testing plan will also utilize mobile testing units which will go right into our communities. We will also open testing sites within our institutions of faith, including at churches and synagogues,” Murphy said.
The plan emphasizes partnerships with labs and universities, like Rutgers Infinite Biologics which says it can ramp up to 50,000 saliva tests per day within six to eight weeks with $6 million in federal funding. Additionally, the Trump administration recently supplied New Jersey with 750,000 swabs and 550,000 test kits.
“We are going to engage in the sort of ‘Moneyball’ approach that we have put to any number of challenges across our state. We will be guided by data, not by politics,” Murphy said.
The state’s logging 10,000 to 12,000 COVID-19 tests per day, according to state health officials. Murphy expects that to more than double to 25,000 tests per day by the end of June. It will include more than 135 city and county test sites, private medical facilities, and pharmacies — like 11 Rite-Aids and soon CVS.
“None of what we’re talking about today will come cheap. Maintaining both a steady supply of testing materials and a community of contact tracers will take hundreds of millions of dollars,” Murphy said.
Nurse Odessa Crawford waited for her COVID-19 test in Englewood. The van — operated in partnership with Bergen New Bridge Medical Center — will be in Hackensack Wednesday.
“I want to make sure I’m not positive. This way I would be, I’d stay clear of my clients and won’t infect anybody else,” she said.
“For those that test positive, they’re going to get the health care that they need,” said Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco. “For those that test negative, they can now leave here knowing that they’re not carrying the virus, and if they need to go back to work they can go back to work.”
Bergen County will add a second van later this week. Together the two vans should be able to do 1,000 tests a day. Tedesco says they’ll stay on the road as long as they’re needed.
