Suffolk County's first mobile testing site for the novel coronavirus began operation on Wednesday at Stony Brook University's south commuter lot, also known as the P lot.
The testing site is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The site has six lanes and can accommodate up to 1,000 tests per day, according to an email from Representative Lee Zeldin sent on Wednesday night.
Testing is by appointment. Appointments will be made only if stringent criteria is met, County Legislator Bridget Fleming said on Tuesday, as testing will be limited. One must either have symptoms of coronavirus infection or have been in contact with someone who has been positively diagnosed, Ms. Fleming said, as there is far less capacity for testing than is needed.
Those wishing to be tested can call the New York State coronavirus hotline at 888-364-3065 for an appointment.
Around 100 tests had been conducted within the first two hours, Ms. Fleming said. "As might be expected," she said, testing "is causing the number of positive [diagnoses] to go up."
As of Wednesday evening, there were 152 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the county, a rise of 55 from the day before. Of those, 18 were hospitalized, Ms. Fleming said during a Wednesday evening conference call with reporters.
Ms. Fleming said that she and Legislator Al Krupski have advocated for a testing site farther east, but she knew of no plans to establish one. "We continue to advocate for it," she said.
The email from Mr. Zeldin said that those unable to travel to the Stony Brook testing site should call their doctor for additional testing options and availability.
Across the country, it is feared that a rapid spike in infections will overwhelm hospitals, and Ms. Fleming said on Wednesday that an expansion of hospital capacity was a focus at the county level. County Executive Steve Bellone, she said, had spoken with officials of all of the county's hospitals "to keep communication open in terms of what the needs are to help them ramp up."
Stony Brook Southampton's Parish Hall has been converted into a forward triage unit so that patients do not have to be in the general population in the emergency room. "With all these measures," Ms. Fleming said, "the focus is to limit contact, contain contact with people with infection, and also to limit community spread in general."