State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie and 23 Brooklyn Elected Officials Call on CDC, Device Manufacturer to Allow COVID-19 Testing at SUNY Downstate

BROOKLYN -- In a joint letter, State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie and 23 Brooklyn elected officials are calling on the Center for Disease Control and the manufacturer of testing equipment to allow COVID-19 testing at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Hospital in Brooklyn.

The officials write that “SUNY Downstate is prepared to move forward with on-site testing – with personnel and certifications already in-hand – but will require a COBAS 6800 testing machine, which is subject to the Center for Disease Control allocation strategy. This equipment is critical to the borough’s and Downstate’s needs and it would allow more than 1,500 tests a day to begin being processed in Brooklyn.”

Regarding the letter, Senator Myrie said, “New York is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak and we are well behind where we need to be on testing. In the midst of a public health crisis, the fact that we are unable to leverage Brooklyn’s flagship teaching hospital is unacceptable. Let’s cut the red tape and get to work.”

As of Thursday evening, Brooklyn had the most confirmed cases of the coronavirus of any borough in the city, with 1,030 of the city’s 3,615.

The full text of the letter is attached to this release.

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Please direct inquiries to Senator Myrie’s Director of Communications, Jonathan Timm, at (313) 618-7005. jt.nysenate@gmail.com