- Özgür Töre
In partnership with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and JetBlue, New York’s Hometown Airline®, the NYC Test & Trace Corps announced the opening of a new COVID-19 testing site at JetBlue’s Terminal 5 at (T5) John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The new testing location opens today and will be fully-operational for six months, with the capacity for up to 600 tests per day. The site will provide free, walk-in testing seven days a week, from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.
With more than 40,000 essential airline and airport workers at JFK, the new testing site will bolster outreach to this critical frontline group while also allowing those who must travel the chance to test before and after a flight and receive results within 48 hours on average.
The new JFK site becomes the second free testing location at a New York City airport, following the opening last month of a site at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B garage with the capacity to test 400 individuals a day. New Yorkers can visit more than 200 testing sites across the five boroughs. To find the nearest testing site go to nyc.gov/covidtest or call the NYC Test & Trace Corps hotline at (212)-COVID19.
In addition to the new testing site, Test & Trace Corps is partnering with JetBlue to help travelers understand and comply with New York State’s recently updated requirements for out of state travel. Under the new guidance, travelers who are arriving from any state that does not share a border with New York or CDC Level 2 or 3 Travel Advisory countries can opt to shorten the mandatory quarantine upon return to New York by taking a test no more than 72 hours prior to arrival in New York (the result is not needed prior to arrival), completing the New York State Traveler Health Form prior to landing in New York, quarantining for three days and on day four, taking a second test. When both negative tests results are confirmed, the quarantine can end.
To help promote safe reentry into New York, Test & Trace Corps will trial a partnership with JetBlue to distribute test kits to customers on select flights over a period of several days. The test is a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) and includes clinician support by Picture Genetics by Fulgent Genetics, a certified and accredited clinical diagnostic lab. Customers will be offered a test kit upon boarding, which they can keep until they are within 72 hours of their return to New York, and then self-administer and mail in order to satisfy New York State’s pre-arrival testing requirement. Once the lab receives the test, results will be provided within 48 hours. The traveler must still quarantine for four days upon their return to New York and test negative on the fourth day in order to end quarantine before the typical 14-day quarantine period.
This is the latest in JetBlue’s broader Safety from the Ground Up program, which focuses on healthy crewmembers, clean air and surfaces, fewer touchpoints, as well as travel flexibility. The airline is dedicated to continuing to evolve this program while focusing on ensuring customers who want or need to travel feel comfortable.
