Alumnus Helps Set Up COVID-19 Testing Site

Samuel Schaffzin (MPA-HPAM 2003) is a Captain in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps and recently returned from a deployment in support of the COVID-19 response where he helped set up a federally-supported, state-run, community-based COVID-19 testing site, which opened to the public on March 23, 2020.

As part of a series of initiatives launched to help ramp up COVID-19 testing, HHS joined forces with FEMA to establish the COVID-19 Community-Based Testing Task Force. The Community-Based Testing Site (CBTS) mission launched nearly 40 testing sites in late March, and Schaffzin was tapped to serve as HHS Federal Site Lead for the PNC Drive-Thru Testing Site in Holmdel, New Jersey.

Initially, the CBTS was set up as a proof of concept with federally-supported, state-run sites (and a few government/private partnership model testing locations—with Walmart and Rite Aid, etc). While the federal staff involved were due to hand over operations to state partners after a few weeks of getting the sites up and running, with a plan to continue to support the funding and supply chain for longer-term operations, several participating states requested that HHS and FEMA remain on the ground as part of the initiative.

Therefore, most of these testing sites will continue to operate and be open to the public. In New Jersey, 500 people per day were tested, and as part of the national CBTS mission, more than 100,000 people have been tested to date. Read more about the testing site via USA Today.