Conference House Park COVID test giveaway draws a long queue

STATEN ISLAND, NY – Residents of Staten Island lined up in the Tottenville block Thursday morning for the chance to receive one of the city’s take-out coronavirus (COVID-19) tests administered on the island.

About 100 people lined up outside Conference House Park in hopes of getting one of the 2,000 tests the city was providing to help deal with the latest wave of the virus due, in part, to the omicron variant. .

A person online told Advance / SILive.com that the supply was already depleted by 9.45 a.m., but they expected more tests to arrive within the hour.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the sites on Wednesday evening and said the city will provide the Binax take-out tests manufactured by Abbott Laboratories. There were approximately 2,000 kits at each of the sites, and there are two tests per kit providing results in approximately 15 minutes.

According to Abbott, the tests are nasal swabs used in the lower nostril, unlike the deeper nasal swabs often associated with coronavirus tests. The tests are intended for people 15 years of age or older and children as young as 2 when samples are collected by an adult.

Take-home test kits are also available at city-run testing sites, according to de Blasio’s office.