Oneida County’s COVID-19 test kit distribution at the DPW in Oriskany started earlier than scheduled as vehicles lined up quickly.

“We’ve been waiting so long to get them,” Oneida County Legislature Chairman Gerald Fiorini said. “This is great for the people who need them.”

What You Need To Know

  • Oneida County hosted three COVID at-home test kit distribution events in different locations on Saturday

  • More than 1,000 kits were handed out in Oriskany, and were gone in under two hours

  • The Oneida County executive says more distribution events will be taking place

“It feels good doing this,” Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said. “It’s the same as when we do the vaccination pods or the other test sites.”

The traffic came in waves and sometimes overflowed onto Judd Road.

“We’re pushing close to 900 I guess,” said Dennis Buczek, a district supervisor with the DPW, a little more than an hour into the give-away.

There may have been a little wait for some, but one visitor says she appreciates the drive-thru method.

“[It was] awesome. Everything went through smoothly and perfectly,” said Oneida County resident Kelly Bianco.

Despite having a thousand test kits at this site, and a few other distribution events at other locations happening at the same time, the kits ran out in under two hours in Oriskany. Some people had to be turned away.

Picente says more public test kit distributions will be scheduled in the future.

“We’re going to do this again,” he said. “We’ll be able to give out more to our community so we encourage people to just be patient.”

Picente said they’ve also provided test kits to some local organizations such as The Center to help reach the refugee population it serves.