Cashing checks won out over swabbing tests on this Monday on Brock Street

A TALE OF TWO DRIVE-THRUS: Guardsmen sit alone under a tarp waiting for COVID-19 test seekers, while down the street at HRCU, cars line up as many customers seek to deposit or cash their $1,200 stimulus checks. (Rochester Voice photos)

ROCHESTER - Guardsmen staffing a drive-thru COVID testing site at the Armory on Brock Street have said this week and last week they've seen few busy times since they opened up on Wednesday.

In response to a question Monday from The Rochester Voice, Gov. Chris Sununu said those numbers are available, but has still not released them.

Test info from public health labs is readily available on the DHHS website, but not from any of the five statewide drive-thru sites.

Meanwhile Rochester Emergency Operations Center Chief Mark Klose said the number of active cases of COVID-19 in the city stands at 10 as of Monday.
Cumulative cases remain at 59+ for Dover, 20-49 for Rochester, 10-19 for Somersworth, 5-9 for Farmington and 1-4 for Milton.

Maine, whose confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 1,205 with 186 hospitalizations and 57 deaths, does not identify cases by town. York County cumulatively now has had 219 cases with 47 hospitalizations and seven deaths.

Interestingly, just a half mile from Rochester's Brock Street drive-thru test site, a huge crowd of cars were amassing at the Holy Rosary Credit Union drive-thru window site, eagerly waiting to cash just-received $1,200 stimulus check sent out to millions of Americans to help them weather the pandemic.

Holy Rosary Credit Union President and CEO Brian Hughes said today the perfect storm of customers looking to cash their stimulus checks while drive-thru tellers took painstaking measures to keep customers and staff safe unfortunately made for a long wait for some, sometimes up to 45 minutes.

To mitigate possible staff-to-staff exposure Hughes said their practice is to only allow one teller in the immediate drive-thru area at a time, while the other two operating the other two lanes wait off to the side observing social distancing guidelines.

He said in an effort to further protect the public, each teller thoroughly washes and disinfects each canister between customers, which takes about a minute.

In pre-COVID times the canister would just be left in the drive-thru for the next customer.

Hughes said Monday's backup around 2 p.m. was unusual and largely in part to folks cashing their stimulus checks.

"We occasionally have spurts with traffic, but for the most part, it's just been steady," he said. "We rarely see something like that."

Hughes also noted that some customers are coming to the window looking for services which to this point were not allowed.

"Some are coming and need a new debit card, others have a number of transactions that they would normally have gone to the lobby, but they're closed now," said Hughes. "Some come (to the drive-up) to do a loan and we use the tube. We're doing unusual transactions, but we're trying to keep everyone safe."

Hughes said despite the adversity of occasional blips, his staff are doing an "amazing job.

"Our customers have been fantastic, and the tellers are working really hard."

One last aside, if you do wait a bit for an HRCU drive-thru teller we're told there's a premature bald eagle in the treetops to the right. Happy birding!