New York expands coronavirus testing criteria to include protesters

New York has expanded coronavirus testing criteria to include all protesters who attended recent events, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday.

He urged everyone who has attended a protest to get a test. He said they have a “civic duty” to get tested. Testing sites can be located at coronavirus.health.ny.gov.

The governor expressed concern that the thousands of people who gathered for protests and marches created an environment conducive to the spread of the virus.

“One person, one person can infect hundreds,” Cuomo said.

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Impacts of the mass gatherings on the viral outbreak would not be evident right away, he said, because virus symptoms usually take four to five days to appear — and some infected people never experience symptoms at all, though they can spread the virus nonetheless. People who become seriously ill do not usually require hospitalizations for eight to 12 days after infection. So a spike in hospitalizations in New York, currently at their lowest levels since the viral surge in late March, won’t be seen for almost two weeks, a time period Cuomo called “a lifetime in the numbers.”

“If you were at one of those protests, I would out of an abundance of caution, assume that you are infected. Go get a test, please,” the governor said.

He urged protesters to “be responsible” and wear a mask.

“Tell people that you may have been exposed to COVID,” he said. Tell people, ‘I may have been exposed’ and act like you may have been exposed. Because by the way, you may have been exposed and if you’re not worried about yourself, that’s a different conversation. Worry about your 55-year-old grandfather or your 62-year-old grandmother or your 60-year-old parent or uncle or aunt. They can die from this virus. By the way, you could too, but that’s a separate conversation,” Cuomo said.

The governor’s exhortation was echoed by CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield during his testimony before a House subcommittee yesterday afternoon. Protesters in metropolitan areas that have not yet controlled the virus, including Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis, should especially consider getting tested, Redfield said.

“I do think there is a potential, unfortunately, for this to be a seeding event,” Redfield testified. Individuals who attended protests should get tested within three to seven days, he said.