April 25, 2020
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Some farmers, warehouse employees, and grocery store workers will now be prioritized for coronavirus testing, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced Saturday, April 25. Workers who live or worker in certain counties of Eastern Pennsylvania will be able to receive testing at two sites.
Workers whose labor contributes to the state's food supply chain will be eligible for priority testing in eastern Pennsylvania, officials announced Saturday.
Some farmers, warehouse workers, and grocery store employees of the eastern part of the state will be prioritized for testing at two coronavirus testing sites. Those who live or work in the counties of Montgomery, Wyoming, Susequehanna, Carbon, Luzerne, Pike, Monroe, Lackawanna, and Wayne qualify for the priority testing.
The two testing sites will be the Montgomery County mass testing site and the federally funded testing site located at the Mohegan Sun in Luzerne County, the Associated Press reported Saturday. Pennsylvania's state department of agriculture made the announcement.
Only adults with symptoms who work within fields related to Pennsylvania's food supply will be able to receive testing at those sites. Testing for them will be free.
These workers now join other groups of individuals, such as health care workers and elderly people, who already qualify for priority coronavirus testing.
The agriculture department made the change to testing in light of the entire food supply chain having the qualification of "life sustaining" as well as the concentration of cases in Eastern Pennsylvania.
More information on the announcement is available here.
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