NUTLEY, NJ – FEBRUARY 28: A researcher works in a lab that is developing testing for the COVID-19 coronavirus at Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation on February 28, 2020 in Nutley, New Jersey. The facility develops novel therapies for some of the worlds most difficult diseases. At least 53 countries have reported cases of infection. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — UC San Francisco announced Friday it is offering free COVID-19 testing to all 58 counties in California.

UCSF says it will provide free testing, indefinitely, to all California Departments of Public Health. This comes one week after UCSF began offering COVID-19 sample analysis to the Departments of Public Health in all nine Bay Area counties.

This is possible after a recent expansion in UCSF’s coronavirus test processing capacity at a new UCSF diagnostic laboratory.

UCSF has worked closely with the city of San Francisco and the state of California to address public health crises.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to offer this service to all county Departments of Public Health across California,” UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS, said. “UCSF’s mission is to advance public health, and the analysis of tests statewide will allow us to support this goal, focusing on the needs of Californians, including the most vulnerable in our communities.”

Free testing and free sample analysis was made possible from the support for the lab from CZI, founded by Priscilla Chan, MD, and Mark Zuckerberg in 2015.

UCSF’s new lab was also enabled by an executive order from California Gov. Gavin Newsom that provides flexibility in some state regulations governing how diagnostic laboratories are staffed. After the governor’s order, UCSF and the CZ Biohub were able to rapidly build out the lab with the help of hundreds of UCSF graduate student and staff volunteers, and to acquire the first test results from patient samples within just eight days.

UCSF has not yet released specific information. You can visit their website here.

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