Still plagued by shortage of bug tests

New York City is recommending more people get screened for coronavirus even though the daily testing capacity is far lower than needed to quickly track and contain new outbreaks across the five boroughs.

Just 17,500 coronavirus tests are conducted in the city a day on average — a fraction of the tens or hundreds of thousands Mayor de Blasio has said are necessary for his plan to gradually lift pandemic restrictions.

Capacity has grown a little since last week, when just 14,000 coronavirus tests were conducted in the city a day. De Blasio said the city should be able to conduct 20,000 a day by May 25 and aims to ramp that up to 50,000 tests per day in the next few months.

“Testing capacity is growing rapidly and it’s going to make a world of difference,” de Blasio said during a remote briefing Thursday.

The city is expanding the COVID-19 testing criteria, telling New Yorkers on Thursday to get screened if they show any symptoms regardless of age, underlying conditions or status as an essential worker.

Symptoms include cough, fever, shortness of breath and loss of taste or smell.

Anyone who comes in close contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient should also be tested, de Blasio said, even if they don’t show any symptoms. The city also recommended those who work in nursing homes, homeless shelters and adult care facilities to seek tests regardless of showing signs of illness.

“Given that we have more capacity all the time, we want to now start to encourage more and more people to get tested,” de Blasio said.

The city is opening two new testing sites in Manhattan and Brooklyn next week that will bring daily capacity within the public hospital system to 6,300. Another 10 sites will be added the following week, bringing the number of tests conducted at public hospital sites a day to 10,700.