January 19, 2021 05:30 AM Test & Trace boosts its mobile testing fleet City’s Test & Trace Corps has expanded its mobile testing fleet after coming to an agreement with Ambulnz, a private company working with Health + Hospitals.

By expanding its partnership with Rapid Reliable Testing—a subsidiary of Ambulnz—the city will now be able to bring 15-minute Covid-19 antigen testing to communities across the city at a time when demand is soaring. More than 100,000 tests were given in one three-day period last week.

“Our growing fleet of mobile rapid testing units expands our ability to provide flexible and convenient testing at no cost where the need is greatest,” said Dr. Ted Long, executive director of the Test & Trace Corps .

Rapid Reliable Testing has already shown promise since launching last month. It has grown from two cars to 30, and each mobile unit can perform up to 300 test per day, all of which can give results within 15 minutes.

The city is currently administering 120,000 tests per day at more than 300 sites across the city

“During this pandemic we’ve seen such great demand for rapid testing—and rightly so. It is one of the most important tools in our arsenal in the fight against Covid-19, and now we are bringing that capability to our mobile testing units to help reach the communities who need it most,” said Gale Brewer.

One of the upshots of the expanded Rapid Reliable Testing under the agreement between H+H and Ambulnz is that rapid testing will be able to reach New Yorkers in the outer boroughs, including Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately harmed by Covid-19.

The National Black Leadership Commission applauded the partnership in a statement issued Friday.

“Expanded access to rapid testing at this critical time will remove barriers to knowing test results on a more- timely basis,” said C. Virginia Fields, the commission’s president and CEO .

The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed, though Ambulnz indicated that the partnership with H+H could go on for months.

“It’s completely up to H+H as to when they want to cease it. There’s flexibility from our side,” said Stan Vashovsky, founder and CEO of Ambulnz. “If they need us for longer, we’re happy to do it.”

There is also room to expand the vehicle fleet, Vashovsky said, adding that 10 additional testing vehicles will be on the road in the coming weeks with room for more if the demand continues to increase.

“It takes us about a week to put together five vehicles at the current capacity,” he said. —Brian Pascus