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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he's authorized mobile, drive-through testing facility that is expected to open next week at a sign to be announced on the Island.
The announcements came Saturday afternoon, March 14, just hours after the first New York state resident died of COVID-19, an 82-year-old woman with underlying respiratory issues in New York City.
Seventeen of the new Long Island cases are in Nassau County.
The breakdown through the state is now as follows:
- Albany County: 3 (1 new)
- Broome County: 1
- Delaware County: 1
- Dutchess County: 4
- Herkimer County: 1
- Monroe County: 2
- Nassau County: 68 (17 new)
- New York City: 213 (59 new)
- Orange County: 6 (3 new)
- Rockland County: 10 (1 new)
- Saratoga: 3
- Schenectady: 1
- Suffolk County: 33 (3 new)
- Tioga County: 1 (1 new)
- Tompkins County: 1 (1 new)
- Ulster County: 5
- Westchester County: 172 (14 new)
Cuomo said on Saturday he will sign an executive order to help relieve the economic impact of COVID-19 on workers and assure school aid for schools that have been directed to close.
As part of the order, the state will waive the seven-day waiting period for workers in shared work programs to claim unemployment insurance for those that have been put out of work by COVID-19.
The order will also eliminate the aid penalty for schools directed to close by state or local officials or those closed under a state or local declaration of emergency that do not meet 180-day requirements if they are unable to make up school days.
The Long Island mobile testing center will come after a drive-through center opened in COVID-19 hotspot New Rochelle on Friday, March 13.
The New Rochelle facility serviced 150 cars and tested 263 people, exceeding the initial goal of testing 200 people, in the first day.
Once fully operational, the New Rochelle facility will be able to test up to 500 people per day.
Drive-through mobile testing facilities help keep people who are sick or at risk of having contracted coronavirus out of healthcare facilities where they could infect other people.
The addition of a mobile testing facility on Long Island is part of the state's initiative to replicate the New Rochelle Mobile Testing Center model at other locations, helping allow the state to run at least 6,000 tests per day starting next week — six times the state's target goal when this outbreak first came to New York.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he took a test for COVID-19 on Friday night, March 13 and is awaiting results.
Vice President Mike Pence announced travel restrictions on the United Kingdom and Ireland as COVID-19 cases there increase.
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