{"id":115146,"date":"2020-11-19T03:28:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T00:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/citymd-covid-19-test-line-is-so-long-it-now-has-a-twitter-account\/"},"modified":"2020-11-19T03:28:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T00:28:36","slug":"citymd-covid-19-test-line-is-so-long-it-now-has-a-twitter-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/citymd-covid-19-test-line-is-so-long-it-now-has-a-twitter-account\/","title":{"rendered":"#CityMD COVID-19 test line is so long it now has a Twitter account"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#CityMD COVID-19 test line is so long it now has a Twitter<\/a> account<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a line of the times.<\/p>\n

A Brooklyn woman has started a Twitter account dedicated entirely to logging the length of the line outside a CityMD clinic on her block \u2014 in an effort to help locals know when they can get tested for COVID-19 without having to wait for hours.<\/p>\n

Francine Ricchi said her account, @CityMDline<\/a>, is a way of \u201cbringing attention to testing and helping people figure out what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ricchi, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, began tracking the line outside the urgent care clinic on Atlantic Avenue, near Nevins Street, earlier this month after noticing that the usual handful of people waiting for a test had grown to between 20 and 40 at any given time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden it went from no line to slowly increasing,\u201d she told The Post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The good Samaritan \u2014 whose day job is on the management team at Chelsea Piers Fitness Brooklyn \u2014 had already been letting her friends in need of COVID-19 tests know the best time to come to the CityMD in her neighborhood, when she decided to expand the service to social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great practice session on social media for me,\u201d Ricchi said, \u201chaving me branch out to different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She modeled her account on a similar one<\/a> that tracks the line outside the nearby Trader Joe\u2019s at Atlantic and Court Street \u2014 and now posts around five times a day.<\/p>\n

As a surge in cases has seen testing lines around the city grow, Ricchi has recently noticed people start to join the queue at around 7 a.m. \u2014 an hour before the clinic even opens most days.<\/p>\n

She said that\u2019s the best time to go, since the line just keeps getting longer as the day goes on.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet there early. Before opening. And then at least you know it\u2019s a little more doable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Now people have started sending her photos of lines outside other Big App<\/a>le clinics, which she shares with her followers on Twitter. And she\u2019s urging more New Yorkers to join in.<\/p>\n

\u201cTweet me your line pics!\u201d she said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n