Florida cuts ties with Quest for failing to report 75,000 COVID-19 tests
According to the Florida Department of Health, Quest violated Florida law when it failed to report COVID-19 results in a timely manner, including nearly 75,000 cases dating as far back as April. Quest Diagnostics said in a statement the delay in reporting was due to a technical issue. The tests are 75,000 of the approximately 1.4 million COVID-19 tests Quest has reported to the state, according to the statement. According to Quest, the private lab has provided more COVID-19 testing for Florida than any other laboratory. On Tuesday, the state reported 190 people had recently died as a result of complications from COVID-19. What is not fully clear yet is the number of COVID-19 cases connected to schools across the state.
Strong demand for virus testing services; snacking surges
Following are developments Monday related to the national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus. Quest Diagnostics is seeing growing demand for its COVID-19 testing services, though at a cost. The company said Monday that second-quarter testing volumes in its base business (excluding COVID-19 molecular and antibody testing) declined approximately 34% from a year ago, according to preliminary results. The company said Monday that the increase was driven by better-than-expected demand for its full-suite of solutions aimed at helping support customers COVID-19 testing needs around the world. PerkinElmer experienced strong demand for its RT-PCR and serology tests, RNA extraction systems and kits, and automated liquid handling instrumentation.
Private lab says huge demand is delaying COVID-19 testing turnaround time
A private laboratory handling millions of coronavirus tests and antibody tests is currently seeing unprecedented demand which is delaying when people get their results back. Quest Diagnostics, one of the many private labs running COVID-19 tests, says beginning on June 29 the lab chain began seeing a surge in tests. However, turnaround time can fluctuate with demand and vary by region, according to the lab. Quest Diagnostics has performed and reported results of approximately 6.6 million COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests and approximately 2.4 million COVID-19 antibody tests. The chain is turning around 120,000 coronavirus tests a day and is planning to increase its capacity to 150,000 throughout the month of July.