COVID-19 testing portal set to launch Monday, while kids' hospitalizations rise

A new online portal that allows New Yorkers to schedule COVID-19 testing appointments at 13 new sites around the state launches on Monday, while health officials warned of a troubling uptick in the number of children hospitalized for COVID-19 in the region.

The new testing sites, which include Long Island locations at IBEW Local 25 in Hauppauge and Kennedy Memorial Park in Hempstead, will be up and running on Wednesday. The portal, expected to go live on Monday morning, is being handled by BioReference Labs in conjunction with the state.

Testing is key to managing the COVID-19 pandemic, but many Long Islanders spent the holiday weekend unsuccessfully looking for spots at overwhelmed urgent care centers. The search for at-home COVID-19 tests was equally challenging at stores and pharmacies where they were sold out.

The testing site at IBEW will be open Mondays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., while testing will be available at Kennedy Memorial Park Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

State officials said people can make appointments or walk into each of the sites, which will offer PCR testing. Within a few days, rapid antigen and rapid PCR tests will also be available.

"There is a tremendous amount of testing going on, and that's good," Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of medicine and chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital in Oceanside, said Sunday. "We know that omicron is highly contagious. We know that more people are going to be tested, and more people are going to be positive, but that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. Then those people can get out of circulation and not transmit to as many other people as they might, if they weren't known to be positive."

"We all wish the numbers were better," he said. "We all wish it wasn't as contagious as it is, but the whole idea of testing people is to decrease the likelihood that somebody else will be exposed."

Due to the Christmas holiday, the state released COVID-19 testing data from Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 on Sunday.

According to the figures, there were 49,708 new positive cases of COVID-19 across the state on Dec. 24 out of 400,030 test results. On Dec. 25, there were 36,454 new positive cases out of 257,325 test results.

Of those cases, 3,438 were in Nassau County and 3,353 were in Suffolk County.

Long Island continued to lead the state in the seven-day average for positivity in testing, with 14.79%. Statewide, the rate was 11.7%.

Meanwhile the state Health Department on Friday said there was a fourfold rise in hospital admissions between Dec. 5 and Dec. 19 among children with COVID-19 in New York City. It did not provide exact figures.

Officials pointed out the increase in hospitalization is taking place in New York City and the surrounding region, where the omicron variant was first detected in the state and is spreading rapidly.

"The risks of COVID-19 for children are real," acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in the statement. "We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in pediatric COVID-19 admissions so that pediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers."

She said parents of children 5 and older should get their children vaccinated. The best way to protect younger children is to make sure people around them are vaccinated, wearing masks and avoiding crowds.

"It is a concern," Glatt said of the increase in young hospitalized COVID-19 patients. He reiterated the suggestions that Bassett outlined to keep kids safe.

"It's like in a football game where you focus on the basics," he said. "Blocking and tackling is how we are going to prevent people from getting sick."

He said it's not yet clear whether the child hospitalizations are unique to the omicron variant.

"It may just be that there's such overwhelming numbers of people getting infected that we are just seeing higher numbers of cases," he said.

Statewide as of Dec. 24, only 27% of 5- to 11-year-olds had received at least one vaccine dose, and 16.1% were fully vaccinated, the state reported. For 12- to 17-year-olds, 71.1% had received at least one dose and 64.1% were fully vaccinated.

For the most recent week starting Dec. 19, none of the 5- to 11-year-old patients statewide was fully vaccinated, the state reported, and less than one-quarter, or seven patients out of 30 admissions of 12- to 17-year-olds, were fully vaccinated.

About half of the children admitted were under the age of 5 and not eligible for the vaccine, officials said.

On Sunday, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order that makes it easier for low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities to renew property tax exemptions. Under the provision, local governments will not have to require people to renew in person.

In addition, the executive order permits clinical laboratories to send COVID-19 tests from New York to out-of-state facilities in an effort to ease the current testing crunch. And the state Senate and Assembly will be allowed to meet remotely if needed through Jan. 15.

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By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.