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St. Pete, New York partner to tackle COVID-19
Josh Cascio reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A new coronavirus testing site in South St. Petersburg is now open, and it’s thanks to a partnership between the city of St. Pete and the state of New York.
Wednesday, New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the leadership of Mayor Rick Kriseman after shipping 7,500 test kits southbound along with tens of thousands of units of PPE. The governor said partnerships like these are when America is at its best.
“We know what you've been going thru we’ve been watching the numbers,” said Gov. Cuomo.
“I can’t say thank you enough to the governor and his team,” Mayor Kriseman told Fox 13. “I think the governor and his staff saw what we're doing in St. Pete, the fact that we were one of the leaders at stay at home, mask order,” Mayor Kriseman said.
Over the last week, Pinellas County has seen its positivity rate below 7%. Still, two of the hardest-hit zip codes (33712 and 33705) fall in the underserved, southern part of the city. That’s the mayor says this new site, at the Pinellas Community Church, is so important.
“We have a testing site at the theater but not everyone’s comfortable in that atmosphere,” Mayor Kriseman said.
The new testing location can run up to 500 tests per day.