Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that New York City will be rolling out a self-swab method of COVID-19 testing.

He says the self-swab tests will be available at NYC Health + Hospitals clininc in the city and will allow for an increase of testing capacity.

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The new method allows patients to administer the samples themselves at testing sites supervised by medical personnel.

He says self-swab testing will increase capacity from 15 tests per hour to 20 tests per hour. The test includes a nose swab and a saliva sample.

The self-testing will also be beneficial for health care workers and conservation of crucial PPE.

Before self-swabs, testing required direct exposure between health care workers and patients, creating high risk.

Now health care workers handle the sample indirectly at a safe distance.

Across the city there are eight testing sites open, with 5,054 people tested since April 17.

The mayor also announced New York City is hiring 1,000 contact tracers immediately. They will helo trace, isolate and support all New Yorkers confimed with COVID-19.

The job requires a background in health, and the role will be to conduct interviews with confirmed cases and identify contacts and connect them to isolation and support.