New York is moving ahead with plans to build a new Wadsworth Center, the state public health laboratory, the Albany Times-Union reports.
It notes that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, New York was planning to create a new Wadsworth lab, as its facilities are aging, out-of-date, and scattered among different buildings of the Harriman State Office Campus. However, the Times-Union adds that the project was not funded in the last state budget due to economic woes stemming from the pandemic. But now with billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid, it says the $750 million design phase is moving ahead.
"Wadsworth has served as a global leader in COVID research throughout the pandemic," New York Governor Kathy Hochul says in a statement. "New York is proud to support Wadsworth's scientists and public health experts with the development of a new world-class laboratory facility to continue their critical groundbreaking research."
The Times-Union notes that it is not yet known whether all the Wadsworth facilities will be consolidated, where they will be, or what the design is.