The slow rollout of tests for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, has left Alabama labs without any ability to detect the fast-spreading virus.

Up until now, Alabama health officials sent all samples to the CDC for testing, but staff at the Alabama Department of Public Health are working to change that.

The state health department now has testing kits, said Dr. Karen Landers, area health officer for ADPH. Landers said the state lab is conducting a quality assurance process before running tests for the new virus. She said she did not know exactly when they would be able to run the tests in Alabama.

“We expect to be testing very soon,” said Dr. Scott Harris, state health officer at the Alabama Department of Public Health, on Monday.

Only a handful of labs in the U.S. had the capacity for testing before last weekend without shipping samples to the CDC. The CDC then issued an emergency use authorization for certain labs to perform tests for the virus.

The move followed the troubled launch of testing nationwide, after the first batch of kits developed by the CDC proved unreliable, according to several news outlets.

The testing problems limited screening in the United States to travelers and those who have had contact with an infected person. As a result, only about 500 tests were administered between January and the end of February, according to the CDC, causing concerns that some infections may be going undetected.

So far, no cases of COVD-19 have been identified in Alabama, Landers said. Cases have been found in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and several other states.

“I think we will see some COVID-19 in Alabama,” Landers said. “It’s not a matter of when we will be able to predict. We are going to keep our eyes and ears open. One of our roles is to be aware and ready to test.”

Other countries have tested thousands of potential patients, including South Korea, which reported more than 100,000 screenings, according to the Korean health agency.

“There were some issues with the first kits, but those have been fixed,” Landers said.

As testing increases, more COVID-19 patients have been identified in the United States.

Until testing gets underway in Montgomery, all samples will be sent to the CDC. Landers said the process runs pretty smoothly. Doctors who determine a test is necessary can call the department, which arranges testing with the federal agency. In many cases, that takes about 30 minutes, she said. Then the department arranges shipment of the sample to federal laboratories.

Testing in Alabama has been limited to travelers and those exposed to the virus. Landers said the public health agency has guidelines about which patients should be tested. The virus causes mild symptoms in a majority of patients, including cough, fever and shortness of breath.

“Even when we stand up our lab to be tested, we still want to go through the process to test people appropriately,” Landers said. “Not everyone with a cold needs to be tested.”

Some private companies have begun developing tests for the virus, but those will need approval from the FDA before they hit the market. The CDC’s emergency authorization will streamline the process for public health and high-level research labs, including some universities.

“UAB is not doing testing now although there have been discussions that, if necessary, virology labs at some hospitals could be authorized and trained to conduct that testing,” said Bob Shepard, spokesman for UAB Medicine. “UAB would likely be one of those hospitals. At this point, however, we are not gearing up for testing and ADPH will handle all tests.