CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- As UVA Health continues to expand its COVID-19 testing capacity, it is now offering its new developed testing to hospitals across the commonwealth of Virginia.
UVA’s current testing allows more than 100 tests per day, and the health system has offered to perform up to 50 tests per day for other Virginia hospitals to inpatients that meet clinical guidelines for testing.
So far, UVA has provided multiple tests for five Virginia hospitals and one in North Carolina.
“Our hope is that providing these tests will assist hospitals across the Commonwealth in caring for their patients and responding to this pandemic,” said K. Craig Kent, MD, UVA’s executive vice president for health affairs. “We also hope this will help to save protective personal equipment and other critical resources for Virginia’s public health needs.”
Last week, the University of Virginia announced that their physicians developed their own COVID-19 test. Over the next two weeks, UVA expected to be able to perform more than 500 tests per day.
“With the new in-house test, the turnaround time is less than 24 hours, with the goal over the next two weeks that the turnaround time will diminish to 2 hours for UVA inpatients and 12 hours for outside hospitals,” said a UVA Health spokesperson.
As UVA Health continues to expand its testing capacity, the health system says they will also make tests available for clinical providers and first responders who have symptoms.