With Covid-19 testing hailed as a key to jump-starting local and regional economies, efforts are under way to ramp up its availability, and this week, Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren announced on Instagram there will be a new, drive-through site set up in the village at HRH Care.
The site, at 330 Meeting House Lane, will be supported by a public-private partnership with the Hamptons Health Society, a nonprofit organization that has had tax-exempt status since 2004. Testing is by appointment, like at the county-run sites elsewhere in Suffolk, and priority will be given to those exhibiting symptoms. Tests will be performed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting this Thursday. The phone number to call is 845-553-8030.
"I personally expect there will be a lot of demand," Mr. Warren said by phone on Monday. "If anyone is calling, we just ask for patience during the first round."
Southampton Village has already been distributing masks at key locations in the municipality, and expects to continue to do so, Mr. Warren said. The village received a supply of 15,000 more masks this week. He also said the village is "proactively working on antibody testing."
"In order for us to get back to work, we're really going to have to increase testing," he said. "Getting the viral testing is great, but there are people who have tested positive who would like to go back and see if they test negative so that they can leave their quarantine. The faster we administer testing, the faster we can get back to some form of normal life. The more people we test, the better."
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Monday said that the county is weighing opening another test site in Greenport.