You want your Covid test results back quickly?

Then guess what Michigan testing labs are doing to maintain that speedy turnaround?

The answer quite honestly is saying NO.

No to new clients.

Even though there is a demand for more testing amid rising numbers, some Michigan labs are saying for them to maintain there level of testing and providing a relatively quick turnaround as far as in getting you your results back, they can't take on new clients and therefore are turning them away.

Last week, Michigan was completing more than 24,000 COVID-19 tests a day, based on a rolling 7-day average.  (Michigan Radio)

Lyle Rawlings, the technical supervisor at Trident Labs in Holland, says his facility has been returning results in 48 to 72 hours. Some public health officials say results should come back after no more than 72 hours. Any longer, and it becomes difficult to perform contact tracing (which involves tracking down those who have come in contact with people who test positive) and to take other measures to control infection. (Michigan Radio)

And even though health experts and the CDC are attributing a fair amount of new cases and rising numbers to young people, a bulk of the testing demands in Michigan now are coming from nursing homes.

Quite the conundrum huh?

And the demand for people wanting to know their status is increasing. Seeing lines like this at Sparrow  Drive Thru Services is the norm now. That's wrapped around the building by the way. Where you see it say drive thru services is the exit. The cars are in line to go in on the other side. Where there are additional lanes to enter and all those are full up too. This is everyday now.

McConnell Adams TSM Lansing
McConnell Adams TSM Lansing
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One solution that is being batted around now is a concept called Covid-19 SAMPLE POOLING.

Let us explain.

Sample pooling does this by allowing multiple people – in this case four individuals – to be tested at once. The samples collected from these four individuals are then tested in a pool or “batch” using one test, rather than running each individual sample on its own test. If the pool is positive, it means that one or more of the individuals tested in that pool may be infected, so each of the samples in that pool are tested again individually. (FDA)

 

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