COVID-19: Quest Diagnostics 'struggling to process tests' due to surge in US

On July 27, a COVID-19 testing firm Quest Diagnostics said that it was “struggling to deliver” to the increasing demands for testing due to an unexpected surge in coronavirus cases in the US, taking at least 7 days for mild symptom patients and 2 days for critical in turnaround time. According to the company’s official statement, there was a shortage of critical supplies in laboratories and a testing spike, as only last week, the firm surpassed 9.2 million COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test results, the highest delivered to date.  

In a statement, Quest Diagnostics reiterated that it had the capacity to test over 135,000 swabs in a day, however, the system was stretched to deliver around 150,000. Further, the company suggested that the specimen pooling could help do away the issue as several presumptive cases can be tested with limited resources. Citing the positive outcomes of the pooled testing. Further, the company explained that while the molecular diagnostic testing remained high in demand, “the virus has spread so much across the United States” that the testing capacity has strained and there are “extended delays”.  

Received the FDA’s first emergency use authorization for the use of pooled specimens with a commercial molecular diagnostic test, and saw capacity slightly exceed demand for the first time since early June—Quest wrote in a statement.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned 'pool testing'

Earlier, during the start of the month, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an emergency use authorization for Quest Diagnostics for the pool or batch testing in the US, allowing at least four test samples to be tested at once, the company had communicated in an official release on its website. The approval had come amid a massive surge in the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US that recorded more than 70,000 infections in a single day.

In a recent communication, Quest said that it was going to implement the specimen pooling at its laboratories in Chantilly, VA, and Marlborough, Mass. It added, “Specimen pooling will allow us to optimize capacity, particularly in populations with low rates of COVID-19 disease.” As per the technique deployed in the pool testing, any test that turns back negative implies all four tests as negative and vice-versa. Earlier, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US' top infectious disease expert, mentioned that the White House coronavirus task force was "seriously considering" pool testing for COVID-19 at a press conference.  

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