NEW YORK – Quest Diagnostics said on Monday that its turnaround time for SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostic tests has been reduced to between one and two days, on average, for all patients after the company had reported a seven-day turnaround time for some patients as recently as late July.
The Secaucus, New Jersey-based company also said that it has cleared all outstanding SARS-CoV-2 specimens associated with the surge in coronavirus cases during the summer.
"Our average turnaround time for all patients is one to two days for all patients, including our Priority Population, e.g. hospitalized patients, patients and staff in long-term healthcare settings, such as nursing homes, and pre-surgical patients in acute care settings," Quest said in a statement. "We now have ample capacity to accommodate incoming orders."
The announcement follows widespread concern just weeks ago that laboratories across the country were struggling with their testing capacity and would not be able to meet testing demands in the fall and during the flu season.
According to Quest, it now has the capacity to run 150,000 COVID-19 molecular tests daily and continues to expect it will scale up to 185,000 tests by Labor Day. The firm did not provide an outlook for its testing capacity for the fall or during flu season.