PARAMUS — New Jersey's first mass-testing site for the coronavirus handled 650 tests on Friday before it was shut down four hours early after using a quarter of the testing kits allocated for the week

State officials patted themselves on the back for handling so many people at the Bergen Community College testing site in Paramus, saying they had been expecting to test 200 people on the site's first day in operation.

“I don’t think in our wildest dreams, guys, we thought you’d test 600 people,” Gov. Phil Murphy said during a press conference on the college campus. “To say there was pent-up demand would be the understatement of the century.”

The site will reopen Saturday at 8 a.m. and test 350 people before closing again. You must be a New Jersey resident to be tested there. You do not need a doctor’s note, but if you are not exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illness, you will be turned away.

Hundreds of people lined Paramus Road outside the BCC campus starting very early Friday, illustrating the kind of panic that has gripped the area since the first positive coronavirus case was announced on March 5. Since then, the state has confirmed 890 positive cases, with 249 alone in Bergen County. Eleven New Jersey residents have died.

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Bergen County has the most coronavirus cases of any county in the state — the next highest count is in Middlesex, which has 76 — and 56 of its 70 towns have at least one positive case, according to Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco.

Tedesco has responded with a series of escalating steps aimed at limiting public interaction. He closed the schools before Murphy issued his own statewide school shutdown, stopped visiting hours at county nursing homes, closed public senior centers and attempted to shutter all nonessential businesses.

How it worked

Workers at the BCC testing site were swift. Cars pulled up to two tents set up in parking lots B and C on the Paramus campus. Two cars were accepted at a time, some with a solo occupant and others filled with four people. People were first screened for symptoms, then given a swab test by medical professionals wearing surgical masks and protective gear.

"These are very resource-intensive operations," said Christopher Neuwirth, assistant health commissioner for the state.

Dozens of military and national guard officials along with state police troopers managed traffic flow on and off the campus. A military truck blocked a back entrance to the college on Midland Avenue.

A truck with medical supplies arrived on the site at one point to deliver dwindling supplies. By noon, the hundreds of people waiting to be tested were turned away when the site closed.

Murphy said the site can test 2,500 people a week. It will be open every day.

Carole Shipman, a nurse midwife who lives in Hillsdale, was one of the last people to get tested, around noon. Shipman said she arrived at the site just before it opened and waited four hours for her turn.

Shipman began feeling ill last week. She had a runny nose, chills, a cough and a fever of 100.8. She has been in self-quarantine since Friday. The fever is gone but not her other symptoms. During a phone interview, she coughed repeatedly.

She worries that people who are not showing symptoms were among those tested Friday. Site workers asked her if she had symptoms, but didn't verify any of them and didn't look at medical documents that she brought proving she had a fever last week and tested negative for the flu, she said.

“I don’t feel like they were diverting anybody off the line," she said. "Almost everyone got tested.”

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The Bergen testing site is being operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with help from the National Guard and state police.

The Murphy administration said Friday that to ensure individuals who are uninsured have access to testing for COVID-19, it will require hospitals and federally qualified health centers to waive patient fees for testing and related diagnostic services for those who lack health insurance.

All but one of New Jersey's 21 counties have at least one positive coronavirus case. Essex County has 73, Hudson has 66 and Monmouth has 53. Ocean and Passaic have 49 each.

Some hospital systems now have their own tests, and commercial labs are also conducting tests, enhancing the initial work done by the state laboratory.

But results must come back faster, Robert Garrett, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health system, with 17 hospitals, said Thursday. "This is vital because we can confirm and isolate patients as soon as possible," and avoid exposure to health care workers, he said. Negative results also free resources for other patients.

Atlantic Health System launched Morris County's first by-appointment-only drive-thru testing center at Morristown Medical Center. The testing center opened Wednesday with 33 appointments. It scheduled 80 appointments for Thursday.

Passaic County plans to set up a coronavirus testing pod at William Paterson University in Wayne and has put out an "urgent call" for medical personnel to staff it on a volunteer basis. The county is working to open the testing center as soon as possible, but doesn't have a specific date yet. The testing will be available to residents only after they have obtained an electronic referral from their doctor.