Travelling Jamaicans in NY tri-state endure freezing wait for COVID test
Published:Friday | December 24, 2021 | 6:20 PM
Dave Rodney/Gleaner Writer
Jamaicans returning home from the New York tri-state region are enduring punishing waiting times to get COVID-19 rapid tests so that they can make their trips.
Travellers to Jamaica must have a negative COVID test to board flights.
But since the COVID spike started in New York just over a week ago, testing centres have been flooded with large volumes of people.
Grantley McIntyre, a New Rochelle resident is due to travel to Kingston on Saturday morning to visit his family.
"I work in Manhattan and yesterday I waited nearly three hours in bitterly cold weather in Times Square without being able to get tested," he lamented Friday.
Early Friday morning, McIntyre was out again, this time at a site near his home in New Rochelle, but there was no escaping the chilly wait.
"It still took six hours with me arriving at 6.20 a.m. and not getting through until after midday," he complained.
At mid afternoon, The Gleaner visited a testing centre at Sheefa Pharmacy on Central Avenue in East Orange.
For the second consecutive day, the line at the pharmacy was wrapped around the building.
Residents had been waiting outside in the cold from the crack of dawn although the facility opens at 10 a.m.
This location, like many others, does not afford appointments for testing so it can only be done on a walk in basis.
Shelly Jackson, a Newark resident told The Gleaner that she was in a serious plight.
"I am travelling home Sunday and I have been in line here waiting for over three hours. I have to wait it out as I have already made my plans and I don't want to lose my US$800 ticket," she said.
In New Jersey, The Gleaner understands that the police had to be called in to assist in maintaining order at some testing sites.
Meanwhile, a manager at the East Orange Testing Center at Sheefa Pharmacy said the testing rush started two weeks ago with many people turning up for travelling purposes.
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