Great News - Roosevelt Island Will Soon Be Getting A NYC Health & Hospital Test & Trace Corp Mobil Covid Unit Says Incoming NYC Council Member Julie Menin

Reported last Tuesday that the Roosevelt Island Youth Center closed due to multiple Covid 19 exposures and PS/IS 217 school parents were pleading for a Roosevelt Island Covid Test site. To date, a petition to bring Covid test site to Roosevelt Island has 344 signatures.

Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 @NYCSchools desperate for help to get local COVID Testing site/van. @BenKallos @SeawrightForNY @SenatorSerrano @RepMaloney @NYCHealthCommr @nycHealthy pic.twitter.com/NrhY5fKAt4

— Roosevelt Islander (@Rooseveltisland) November 30, 2021

Yesterday, I asked newly-elected, incoming Roosevelt Island/Upper East Side NYC Council Member Julie Menin:

There is no Covid Test site on Roosevelt Island. RIOC is silent on this. A group of parents have started a petition to bring Covid Test site to Roosevelt Island. Any comment on this? Anything you can do to help....

Ms Menin reported this afternoon:

I spoke to the City’s Test and Trace Corps and they will deploy a mobile unit to Roosevelt Island to meet residents’ concerns. It will be open to the general public.

I spoke with Ms Menin a few minutes ago. She said that as a former NYC Commissioner and head of several NYC Agencies, she was able to use her City Hall contacts to secure a NYC Health & Hospitals Corp Test and Trace Corp mobile unit for Roosevelt Island.

Image From NYC Health & Hospitals Corp

The mobile unit will perform both rapid and PCR testing. 

The location and hours of the mobile unit are still to be determined though it can easily move to wherever on Roosevelt Island it is most needed.

Good job by our incoming NYC Council Member Julie Menin (pictured below campaigning last September at the Farmers Market).

UPDATE 12/3 Ms Menin adds:

The mobile van will arrive between 8 am and 8:30 am on dec 6. It will be there Dec 6 through dec 12th. Location is still tbd.

Happy to announce that on December 6, @nycHealthy Test and Trace Corps will deploy a mobile testing van to Roosevelt Island to meet the COVID testing needs of residents. The van will be there Dec 6-12th and come back as needed.

— Julie Menin (@JulieMenin) December 3, 2021

UPDATE 12/4 - NY State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright reported yesterday:

I'm delighted the city responded quickly to my call for a much needed testing unit starting next week on Roosevelt Island. 

My compliments to resident Susy Del Campo, Wendy Hirsch of Roosevelt Island Disabled Association, and the Roosevelt Islander for their advocacy efforts to keep the community safe as we navigate through the evolving pandemic. 

And from the NYC Health & Hospitals Corp:

All schools have regular surveillance testing in order to detect transmission that may be occurring in the building. We have proven that schools remain among the safest spaces in NYC as it relates to transmission. While we don’t station mobile testing vans at schools (so as not interfere with the surveillance testing happening within the school), we can certainly deploy a van to Roosevelt Island in the coming week that is open to the general public.