April 19, 2020
A new COVID-19 screening and testing site will open in Willingboro on Monday at the campus of Virtua Willingboro Hospital, officials announced.
The site, which will operate on weekdays from Noon-4:00 p.m., will be open strictly to residents of the Burlington County, New Jersey-town and to those referred by Virtua Health physicians. Appointments must be made for testing, while Willingboro residents are permitted for walk-ups. Anyone without an appointment for a test will first be screened by a provider to determine if testing is appropriate.
This will be Virtua Health’s third COVID-19 testing site, alongside testing that is already available in all five of its hospitals and seven emergency rooms. The development of Virtua’s latest testing site came about after discussions between hospital leadership and local elected officials.
“While the world is being asked to social distance, it is more important than ever that we come together to face this pandemic and find solutions where we can,” Virtua President and CEO Dennis Pullin said in a statement. “Adding this testing site as we learn of a higher incidence of the virus here in this community is a responsible and proactive way to accelerate identifying who has the virus and who needs isolation or treatment.”
The decision to set up a testing site in Willingboro was made due to the significant number of highly-vulnerable populations to the coronavirus who live in the community, officials said. Many senior citizens, retired veterans, African Americans, and essential workers who commute to Philadelphia and New York City make up the town.
“We were seeing an alarming number of coronavirus cases in Willingboro, significantly higher than other parts of Burlington County, and we all just knew we had to do something,” State Sen. Troy Singleton said.
Along with its two FEMA-partnered testing locations at Bergen County Community College in North Jersey and PNC Bank Arts Center in Central Jersey, the state has about two dozen publicly-accessible testing COVID-19 sites.
A new testing site opened this past week at Camden County College’s Blackwood campus in Gloucester Township for first responders, health care workers, and others who are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
The site, which is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is also available to county residents who make an appointment, show symptoms of the virus, and have received a referral from a medical provider. The site is being run by Jefferson Health New Jersey, which has also set up drive-thru testing sites in Cherry Hill and Washington Township, and the Camden County Health Department.
The New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association has opened a drive-thru testing site in Deptford, Gloucester County for first responders, including volunteers, and health care workers. Testing is available by appointment only.
Additional COVID-19 testing sites in South Jersey are located at Cooper’s Poynt Park in Camden and Cooper University Health Care in Cherry Hill.
New Jersey reported an additional 3,881 confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the state’s total number of cases up to 85,301 as of Sunday afternoon. There have been 4,202 deaths due to COVID-19 across the state.
The vast majority of positive cases and deaths due to the virus have occurred in North Jersey, but South Jersey has accumulated 5,483 COVID-19 cases and 197 deaths due to coronavirus complications.
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