New York City residents are clogging up vital local emergency rooms to simply get a COVID test, Gov. Kathy Hochul warned Friday.
“Too many New Yorkers are going to emergency rooms to get a test just to get a test,” Hochul said during a press conference in Manhattan. “Please do not go to an emergency room and tie up the resource of those [workers] so you can get a test.”
She said that statewide, about 19 percent of emergency-room visits in the past 24 hours have been for coronavirus tests, putting an extra burden on ERs already overtaxed by the Omicron variant. In New York City, about 20 percent of ER visits in the past day have been for tests alone.
“And don’t come in if you’ve very mild symptoms, either,” Hochul said of ER visits.
“I know you’re anxious,” she said. “I really understand this.
“But if you’re an adult with very minor symptoms, you can handle a runny nose, you can handle this throats being a little bit sore, a little bit of cough.
“Just treat it as if you would have flu, follow the protocols, but please don’t overburden our emergency rooms. They have so much work to do,” she added.
NYC emergency rooms are inundated amid the rise of COVID cases due to the Omicron variant. Misha Friedman/Getty ImagesOmicron is hyper-contagious but appears to be more mild than previous versions of the disease — particularly for those who are vaccinated and have received a booster shot.
But the sheer number of cases has inundated hospitals with patients — particularly unvaccinated New Yorkers — and emergency rooms are once again struggling to keep up.
Hochul touted the state’s roughly 2,000 testing centers as options for New Yorkers seeking COVID-19 tests and also announced plans to add for new sites at subway stations in New York City: 125th Street (A/B/C/D trains); Bedford Park (B/D); Coney Island/Stillwell Ave (D/F/N/Q) and Queens Plaza (E/M/R).
Hochul urged those seeking tests and even those with minor COVID symptoms to stay away from emergency rooms. Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesTesting was already offered at several other transit and commuter rail hubs, including Times Square-42nd St. (1/2/3, N/Q/R/W and S); Grand Central Terminal (MetroNorth, 4/5/6 and S); Penn Station (Long Island Rail Road, 1/2/3 and A/C/E); Broadway Junction (A/C, L and J/Z); The Bronx’s East 180th St. (2/5); Roosevelt Ave. (R/M/E/F and 7) and Jamaica-179th St. (F).
