Columbia lab responsible for one-third of COVID-19 testing across Missouri
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A private Columbia laboratory is now assisting numerous hospitals across Missouri and out-of-state with COVID-19 testing.
Tim McCarty, the director of marketing for PTC Laboratories says the lab has increased partnerships to help around 15 hospitals across the nation -- but it's focused mainly on in-state tests.
"We have multiple others (hospitals) that we're working to onboard, as we speak -- We're doing a limited number of out of state testing, but our primary focus is Missouri," McCarty said.
McCarty credits the increase in testing to multiple facets, including the lab's ability to quickly turn around results and the increasing availability of test kits.
"We've had an increase of hospitals working with us, healthcare providers looking for a quick turnaround solution that we're able to provide, a local quick solution for their testing needs so we can get these patients, their test results quicker and begin those next steps of care," McCarty said.
GeneTrait Labs has now tested roughly 2,500 COVID-19 test swabs.
The lab is currently turning around 1000 samples daily and turnaround time is consistently under 24 hours, typically closer to 18 hours sometimes as quick as 12 hours depending on when the lab received the sample.
"We started out at about 200 tests a day, we're averaging about 400 tests a day, today I think we're going to close out at 500, and we've been steadily increasing this whole time," McCarty said.
On Thursday, during Governor Parson's press conference, Randall Williams, the director of the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services said over 6,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Missouri.
As of Thursday afternoon, there are just over 500 COVID-19 positive cases in Missouri, roughly 8% of those tested.
"The good news is that for those 92 or 94 out of 100 people they're testing negative who are symptomatic," Williams said. "We think that, as the governor said, we understand people are very anxious and one great way to help people is to get them as much information as we can."
McCarty said GeneTrait Labs is seeing a smaller percentage of positive tests but says it varies by batch.
"We are seeing fluctuations in our positive rates deviating anywhere from 1% to some days I think we've had over 6% but we seem to be maintaining about a 3% positive rate of the tests that we're receiving here in this lab," McCarty said.
GeneTrait Labs reports all of its positive cases with the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, out of 3,037 people tested for COVID-19, only 168 have come back positive which comes out to roughly 5.5%.
