SUNY opens test site, County seeks answers to Milford test delays

Public Health Director Heidi Bond told the January 5 Otsego County Board of Representatives her office is pushing New York State to speed up delivery of results from its Milford COVID testing facility as virus cases in the county go “through the roof.”

“Results come back within six or seven days and it should only take two,” she said in a virtual address to the Board. “We’re pushing the state to push the contractor to rectify that.”

“We’re trying to move to where the County Department of Health notifies people of their test results,” she said of the Milford logjam.

Telling the Board the Omicron variant has caused a surge of infections across the county, Ms. Bond said her office will add more information to its website regarding the latest quarantining guidelines.

“If you have been in close contact with a positive case and you only had two shots of the vaccine, or one in the case of Johnson and Johnson, it’s recommended that you quarantine,” she said.

In addition to Milford, New York State opened a second COVID-19 test site on January 7 at SUNY Oneonta’s Emergency Services Building on the south side of the campus. Open Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., the site targets tests for those experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19 and its variants. Tests are free and open to the public, and the facility requires an appointment in advance.

“Bringing more options for testing is important to our community,” Ms. Bond said of the new site. “Testing and knowing your status can help to reduce transmission in our community. Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 should get tested, regardless of their vaccination status or prior infection.”

SUNY Oneonta, Otsego County, New York State, and Syracuse-based Quadrant Biosciences collaborated to set up the new SUNY site. SUNY Oneonta students and faculty already use the same test on offer at the new site – a self-administered, saliva-based test sent to a lab in Syracuse with results expected in two to three days. Officials expect the testing site to accommodate approximately 100 people per day.

Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek, SUNY Oneonta President Alberto Cardelle, and volunteers received tests in an opening-day practice run. The mayor called the testing process “very easy.”

“This is going to be a tremendous asset to the community,” he said.

SUNY President Cardelle called the new site “one more of our interventions to keep the community safe.”

“We’ll be looking for other ways to keep students and faculty safe,” he said, adding pool-testing remains underway for the asymptomatic.