BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Quest Diagnostics, which handles a majority of the COVID-19 testing in the nation, is reporting that the demand for COVID-19 testing continues to stress testing capacity and drive lengthy turnaround times.
Officials with Quest said in a release during the past week they surpassed 9.2 million COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test results delivered to date. They say the high demand has led to delays in test results.
Their average turnaround time for reporting test results is over two days for priority one patients, that includes hospital patients and symptomatic healthcare workers, and seven days for all other patients.
Quest said their goal for turnaround times is one day for priority one patients and three days for most other patients.
They said right now they can perform up to 135,000 tests a day and are working to increase that to 150,000 tests a day by next week.
Quest said the most significant hurdle they face is the global demand for testing supplies.
