Pharmacies Soon to Offer Coronavirus Testing, Governor Says
Governor Cuomo on Saturday announced an executive order to expand testing of coronavirus via local pharmacies, a critical step in the move to reopen New York State.
The new mandate allows the approximately 5,000 independent pharmacies to offer walk-in diagnostic tests, but it’s a phased rollout. Testing will initially be made available to first responders, medical workers and so-called “essential employees” such as bus drivers, grocery store cashiers, and laundromat workers.
Pharmacists at these drugstores will administer the test swabs, and then send samples to any of the 300 state-approved labs for processing. Results are usually ready within three days.
The second phase will see testing rolled out to the public at large.
“Hopefully, one day we get to the point where anybody who wants a test can walk in and get a test,” the governor said during his daily presser from Albany.
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