New Testing Sites Slated For Hill, ​‘Ville

The city and a Greenwich-based doctor plan to open new sites in Newhallville and the Hill this week in an effort to expand Covid-19 testing to more of the black and brown neighborhood’s hardest hit by the virus so far.

Mayor Justin Elicker and city Health Director Maritza Bond made that announcement Tuesday afternoon during the mayor’s daily coronavirus-related virtual press briefing, held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on YouTube Live.

The city now has a total of 2,283 confirmed positive Covid-19 cases and 91 related fatalities.

Elicker (pictured) said that the city Health Department, the Medical Reserve Corps, and clinicians from the Greenwich-based Murphy Medical Associates plan to open a new walk-up testing site at Lincoln-Bassett School on Wednesday morning and a new walk-up testing site at Hill Central School on Friday morning.

Both sites will be open to anyone interested in getting tested, regardless of whether they are sick or asymptomatic. The tests cost nothing to receive, though the clinic will bill insurance companies for those patients who do have insurance.

And the Health Department is encouraging residents to schedule an appointment before showing up by going to the city’s Covid-19 website or by calling the Health Department at 203 – 946-4949.

“This is part of the city’s initiative to bring testing closer to the people,” Elicker said. ​“There is no barrier to anyone getting tested in the city.”

Elicker and Bond said that the Lincoln-Bassett site will be located outdoors in the basketball court behind the Newhallville middle school, near the intersection of Shelton Avenue and Ivy Street in city park land.

That site will be open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Wednesdays starting tomorrow, May 20.

The Hill Central site will be located outdoors in the school’s parking lot. That site will be open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Fridays starting May 22.

Bond said that the Day Street Park walk-up testing site in the Dwight neighborhood will be closed Wednesday mornings and Friday mornings going forward as Murphy’s clinic moves temporarily moves its clinicians and volunteers on those days from Dwight to Newhallville and the Hill, respectively.

She said the city decided to start out with relatively limited hours at the new Newhallville and Hill sites to see how much traction they get in their respective communities. ​“If there is an increase of need,” she said, the city will consider expanding service.

These new sites represent the sixth and seventh testing sites to open in New Haven. The other five are located in the Day Street Park behind Amistad Middle School, at Cornell Scott Hill Health Center’s Dixwell Avenue clinic site, at Fair Haven Health Care’s Grand Avenue clinic site, at a Yale New Haven Health-run site at 150 Sargent Dr. on Long Wharf, and at a CVS-run site at 60 Sargent Dr. on Long Wharf.

On Monday, Elicker published new heat maps and charts breaking down the city’s Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths by race and by neighborhood.

Those charts show that 43 percent of the city’s Covid-19 hospitalizations have been African American, 26 percent have been Hispanic, and 23 percent white. The city is roughly one-third African American, one-third white, and one-third Hispanic.

“The Right Thing To Do”

Elicker and Bond (pictured) shared the list of local restaurants that have applied to renew their outdoor dining licenses. Bond said these restaurants plan to partially reopen starting Wednesday. See the full list below.

Bond said these businesses have all previously been approved by the city for outdoor dining. These latest applications are for renewals for their licenses. She said Health Department inspectors will be conducting surprise visits at restaurants starting tomorrow to make sure they are following the governor’s Phase 1 reopening guidelines. She said these restaurants are allowed to reopen before they receive a local Health Department inspection, though they must first self-certify on with the state.

Elicker urged businesses that partially reopen Wednesday to make sure that employees and customers continue to wear face masks and practice social distancing. He said anyone with concerns about potential safety violations should call 2 – 1‑1.

When asked about how the city would respond if hair salons and barber shops decide to open this week even though they are no longer eligible businesses under the governor’s Phase 1 guidelines, Bond said, ​“I encourage all hair salons and barbershops to be patient.” She said that the city hosted a webinar for haircutters earlier this week and consistently heard from business owners who did not feel that reopening on Wednesday, as they were originally slated to do, would be safe.

“We will have to do enforcement on my end if necessary,” Bond said. ​“It is my hope that that does not occur.”

“Come on folks,” Elicker said in response to Tuesday morning’s barber protests. ​“These are not easy decisions. The governor, the mayors are trying to do the right thing to keep residents safe. We need the people’s cooperation.

“I don’t agree with everything the governor has done. The governor doesn’t agree with everything I’ve done. But at the end of the day, we need to work together to overcome this crisis.”

“The last thing we need right now is business owners just going out and doing their own thing,” he continued. ​“I know that’s difficult to hear … but it’s the right thing to do.”