My son thought it was a good idea to have COVID testing done to make sure he's not infected, even though we just had a test about a week ago. Negative result, whew. A little bird told me to try the simple, walk-in service at Nathan's Pharmacy at the corner of Bath and 19th Avenues. Alas, it was closed, possibly because it was Sunday, maybe more so because it was the New Year weekend. Once or twice I saw some testing van by Calvert Playground so I made a trip there. Alas, no van. It was there when I needed it, not there now when I wanted it to be there. I pulled into a parking spot and searched for "COVID testing near me" in Google Maps app. I already had my preference for the Brooklyn Army Terminal (B.A.T.), so that was all I could see, in particular a LabQ site in the area. The site was listed as the LabQ office on some floor in Building A. I went there once before. They weren't supposed to take any patience that day, so I was told, but they were nice enough to take me in. Mobilize to the B.A.T., let's go!
Street parking wasn't readily available as usual. Cars were double-parked near the few queues in the area. I decided to park on the pier for once. There was plenty of room. A short walk over to Building A and there was a sign on the door that told us to use their Mobile Service on First Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets. It had to be Rapid Testing because the line went around the block. Just a block away at the corner of 58th Street and First, near the entrance to the B.A.T. campus, there was another, shorter line. We took that queue, since the difference is really a day or two, at least from what we experienced on Staten Island, with Pro Health, when we took both PCR and Rapid. It was a decent day, not as cold as that day we were on the queue for Pro Health. The line moved fast, too, we were done in about an hour. With Pro Health, we had to wait for hours just to register, they had to scan our insurance card, asked about our preferred pharmacy etc. Then we had to go back to our car to wait to be called in. The queue length maybe the same but because of the extra paperwork the whole ordeal was like five hours versus today's one. I decided not to waste a test resource and let my son go in by himself, even though I was on the queue for about an hour myself. Son said it was a saliva test, not the nose-swabbing type that we experienced a few times before. Whatever, they didn't ask him for his insurance card. While we were on the queue, a staff member showed us a QR code to scan, to register before going in. I tried but never got any confirmation email, but the idea is good. Instead of two or three staff people doing all the typing for the entire queue, let the patients register themselves while they have time to kill. On an unrelated note, booster shots were still administered, you would enter the gate by the bus stop. Or wait outside by the gate if the guard tells you so. Then further toward Second Avenue, there was another test queue, another mobile unit named DocWorks or something like that.
I saw some people carried containers of fried chickens and biscuits so I thought there was a KFC nearby, perhaps in the same building with the Dunkin nearby. That was not the case. We decided to patronize Wendy's at Caesar's Bay instead. Traffic was bad on the Belt Parkway, just before the merge with the off-ramp of the Verrazano. Took the local to swing by Poly but it wasn't much better. Once I was on the Belt then it was all good. The parking area by Five Guys was chaotic, people leaving and pulling in as if they own the place. There were plenty of space just a few yards away but people just had to park right next to the building.
Now we wait for the results.