Thomas MacMillan file photo
The former Gateway campus on Long Wharf.
The pharmaceutical and healthcare giant CVS has opened a new Covid-19 rapid testing site at the former Gateway Community College on Long Wharf, where New Haveners who register for an appointment in advance and show up in a vehicle can get tested for the novel coronavirus for free.
Gov. Ned Lamont and Mayor Justin Elicker announced the opening of the new testing site in two sets of email press releases sent out Friday morning.
The rapid testing site is at 60 Sargent Dr., and is CVS’s first such site in Connecticut.
Residents can preregister for an appointment by going to this website. Each test should take roughly 30 minutes in total, from the collection of the swab to the delivery of the results.
Patients do not need a physician referral in order to get tested. They just need to go to the website linked above and schedule an appointment. In the process of scheduling that appointment, CVS asks a series of screening questions that determine whether or not the person filling out the form should be tested for Covid-19.
The drive-through site does not allow walk-up visits; residents must show up in a vehicle in order to be tested.
Those without vehicles should call 2 – 1‑1, and the state will provide them with a taxi service through the Connecticut-based taxi company M7 free of charge. Drivers will wear new personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks and gloves, for each ride and there will a plexiglass shield separating the driver from the passenger, according to the mayor’s press release.
According to the state’s press release, when patients arrive, they are required to remain in their vehicles. Team members will check their registration and direct them through the testing process. Health care providers, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants from MinuteClinic, will be on-site to oversee the testing.
“We see the effectiveness of COVID-19 rapid testing sites in other states like Georgia and Rhode Island, and I am glad that CVS has stepped up to open a rapid testing site in New Haven,” Elicker is quoted as saying in the city’s press release. “This partnership will aim to test up to 1,000 people a day in this location. The New Haven Health Department will also provide assistance to those residents without internet access by helping to fill out the online application. Call our emergency line at (203) 946‑4949 for assistance. This is an unprecedented time for our communities, and it is critical we continue to stay home and stay safe to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”
“While a vaccine does not yet exist for this virus, one of the ways we can mitigate its impact is through increasing our testing capacity,” Lamont is quoted as saying in the state’s press release. “Not only will this new testing site significantly increase the number of people being tested, but the speed at which we can get results will aid in our effort to prevent further spread of this disease. Public-private partnerships like this will only strengthen our state in the fight against the coronavirus. We appreciate the community outreach that CVS Health is doing here in Connecticut as their work is quite literally saving lives.”
CVS already runs similar rapid testing sites in Georgia and Rhode Island.
The drive-through testing site is the second to open on Long Wharf, with Yale New Haven Hospital already running another testing site at 150 Sargent Dr.
A dearth of available testing has been one of the biggest problems in the United States since the outbreak of the pandemic last month. Testing allows public health experts and residents to know who has the virus and is sick, who has the virus and is asymptomatic, and who needs to self-isolate and quarantine in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.