[UPDATE as of March 23: The testing site at the Ida G. Israel Community Health Center is closed until further notice. City-sponsored coronavirus testing is only available at city-run hospitals for people who need to be hospitalized. Click here for more information.]
Three Coney Island clinics will be open for coronavirus testing beginning on Thursday.
Coney Island Hospital in Brighton Beach and its affiliate, the Ida G. Israel Community Health Center in Coney Island, opened their doors to locals with coronavirus symptoms at 1 pm, officials announced. Next week, a third testing site will open at MCU Park’s parking lot.
Perspective visitors must have coronavirus symptoms: a dry cough, a fever over 100.4 degrees, shortness of breath, or a sore throat. Only people over 5o or people with an underlying health issue, such as cancer, lung disease, or a compromised immune system, can make appointments at this time, officials said.
To make an appointment at any of the three sites, visitors must call (844) 692-4692. Walk-ins will be turned away, authorities said.
The Ida G. Israel Community Health Center — located on W. 19th Street across from MCU Park — will offer drive-through assessments, meaning that physicians will approach each patient’s car for a verbal examination of their symptoms. Only patients whose symptoms meet coronavirus criteria will be given a test.
At Coney Island Hospital, located on Ocean Parkway by Shore Parkway, patients will enter the building for a verbal assessment before receiving the coronavirus test.
Coney Island Hospital is working to construct a third testing unit at MCU Park’s parking lot on Surf Avenue by W. 20th Street, which will provide “a much larger and safer” area for testing, representatives said. The location will be up and running sometime next week, Councilman Mark Treyger’s office confirmed.
Brooklyn now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other borough, with more than 1,000 cases as of March 19.
