New York state leads the country in COVID-19 testing, and will continue at that rate now that 52 independent pharmacies will be joining the efforts. 

"That brings the total number of sites in the state of New York to 750,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

It is all part of a new pilot program the state is launching. Officials say it will give the independent pharmacies the ability to conduct 7,000 tests per week.  

"If you think about it, if the 50 stores in the pilot are doing 7,000 tests a week, if we're able to bring this to the 2,500 -- all 2,500 independent stores -- throughout the state of New York, we'd be doing more than 300,000 tests a week,” said President of Pharmacists Society of the state of New York, Steve Moore.

Eight of the 52 pharmacies are in Brooklyn and eight are in the Bronx. The federal government is securing the materials for the state, in turn, the state will provide the tests to the pharmacies. 

 

"It's an incredibly exciting opportunity for us and we're really thrilled to partner with the state of New York to make sure we're getting good quality tests as part of this pilot,” said Moore. 

Moore says it will be an appointment-based model to avoid having sick patients walk store to store trying to find a testing site. 

"If you have any symptoms - get a test! If you are exposed to a person who you found out was positive, get a test," said Gov. Cuomo.