APRIL 16 — The MTA announced on Wednesday, April 15, 2020, a new COVID-19 testing program for transit workers mirroring the initiative the city launched for police and firefighters earlier in the week. The MTA will forward the names of workers with COVID-19 symptoms to Northwell Health facilities so they can be tested. The testing will begin tomorrow, Friday. Below is the statement released by Local 100 President Utano on the announcement, followed by the Daily News article and information the MTA released on the program.
President Utano: “On one hand it’s good news. Transit workers, police officers and other essential workers need and deserve expedited testing. But on the other hand, it required a lot of agitation and advocacy by workers and unions like TWU Local 100 to make it happen. Why the wealthiest country in the world couldn’t quickly get the necessary testing is something someone will have to answer to at some point. The NY Daily News reports on Coronavirus testing for transit workers with an initiative mirroring program for cops and firefighters.”
More Information on Testing from the MTA:
Under the new partnership, Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care will provide priority testing to symptomatic transportation workers a rate of up to 50 tests per day or 350 per week. The partnership between the MTA and Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care is similar to the partnership the organization has with the NYPD and FDNY. The agreement expands the range of options available to MTA employees, who are still able to go to their primary care physician or other medical provider at no cost to the employee.
Northwell Health-GoHealth will be reaching out to MTA workers who have identified themselves as symptomatic to the MTA COVID-19 hotline and arranging appointments for a range of comprehensive medical exams and diagnostic tests, including testing for COVID-19 beginning Friday, April 17.
Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care locations are located at 52 locations throughout the region and are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
For more information, go to: www.Gohealthuc.com/nyc
This is the text of the Daily News article:
The MTA partners with hospital group on quick coronavirus tests for transit workers
A few hundred MTA employees with coronavirus symptoms will be quickly tested for the disease under a new partnership announced Wednesday between the agency and Northwell Health, New York state’s largest health care provider.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have identified roughly 400 transit workers who have COVID-19 symptoms, and provided that list to Northwell Health.
Starting Friday, those workers will be directed to visit one of the health care provider’s 52 urgent care clinics in the New York City area for a coronavirus test. The partnership will cover about 50 MTA employees per day, said agency chairman Pat Foye.
“The quantity of testing is a national issue,” said Foye. “We hope to test every transit worker, but right now with the Northwell partnership, which we’re really excited about, we’re going to deal with the symptomatic transit workers first.”
The announcement comes a day after the NYPD and FDNY announced a similar partnership with Northwell Health to test front-line cops and firefighters for the disease.
As of Wednesday, at least 59 MTA employees have died from coronavirus, and more than 2,200 have tested positive for the disease.
Transit workers have over the last month been forced to seek coronavirus tests on their own accord.
Officials from Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents 40,000 New York City transit workers, have for weeks called for their members to get higher priority for tests.
“It required a lot of agitation and advocacy by workers and unions like TWU Local 100 to make it happen,” Local 100 president Tony Utano said of the partnership. “Why the wealthiest country in the world couldn’t quickly get the necessary testing is something someone will have to answer to at some point.”
