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Quest Diagnostics, the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, on Monday said demand for COVID-19 tests “continues to outpace” capacity.
Demand for molecular testing is highest in the South, Southwest and West regions of the country, the company said in a media statement.
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The company is taking several steps to expand existing capacity. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday reissued an emergency use authorization to Quest Diagnostics to authorize a coronavirus test with pooled samples. The test allows four samples to be tested at once, which saves on testing resources.
“While we believe our gains in capacity will help improve turnaround times over the next few weeks, testing speed is largely a function of demand. We believe these dynamics affect not only Quest Diagnostics but the entire laboratory industry,” according to the media statement.
Kimberly Gorode, Quest Diagnostics spokeswoman, in an email statement to Fox News, said the company is offering pooled testing in Chantilly, Va., and Marlborough, Mass., labs, adding, “though we’re working to bring it up in additional labs around the United States as quickly as possible.”
Quest Diagnostics said "“a small subset of patients” may see wait times of up to two weeks for test results. (iStock)
Gorode said the company expects to increase testing capacity by 20,000 tests a day to reach a goal by the end of the month of 150,000 tests daily, “and then will evaluate what is possible beyond that and communicate it publicly.”
According to WCVB 5 ABC, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker visited the Marlborough lab in March and spoke about an expected "enormous increase" in the amount of tests that would take place daily. At that time, the outlet reported the facility was capable of performing 2,000 to 3,000 tests a day. Between state and private labs, Baker reportedly wanted to see a minimum of 3,500 tests daily at that time.
Fox News has reached out to the governor's office with a request for comment.
Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker visited the Marlborough lab in March and spoke about an expected "enormous increase" in amount of tests that would take place daily. (Photo credit: Dennis Moynihan, Quest Diagnostics)
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"We will get to the point where we're doing the amount of testing every day that we believe we need to be doing," Baker said in March.
In the media statement, the company said there are several issues impeding increased capacity, such as limits to testing platforms, the complex machines that perform the technical analysis, and the reagents, or chemicals, used to perform testing.
As a result, Quest Diagnostics said the average turnaround time for reporting test results is now more than two days for “priority 1 patients,” compared to one day a week ago. These individuals include hospital patients, pre-operative patients in acute care settings and symptomatic health care workers.
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The company said it relies on the health care provider to note the level of priority of each patient specimen referred to Quest for testing.
The average turnaround time for all other patients is seven or more days. While some patients may see test results in two to three days, “a small subset of patients” may see wait times of up to two weeks for test results.
The turnaround time for molecular diagnostic and antibody testing factors in transportation time, which fluctuates with demand and varies by region, the company said.
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