LabCorp says it can perform 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day

LabCorp announced that it will be able to perform more than 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day beginning Friday, March 20, ahead of its original schedule. This represents a significant increase in capacity since the company released its COVID-19 test two weeks ago. The company is working continuously to increase capacity and support the needs of healthcare workers, patients, government, clients and other organizations, and expects capacity to continue to increase.

The company is intently focused on making COVID-19 laboratory testing available to patients who are symptomatic and should be tested. LabCorp has moved quickly to significantly increase its testing capacity by adding staff, equipment and more high-throughput testing now underway as a result of approved emergency use authorization (EUAs). LabCorp is now performing COVID-19 testing at its labs in Phoenix, Ariz., Burlington, N.C., and Raritan, N.J.

As a reminder, LabCorp does not collect specimens for the test. Patients for whom testing has been ordered should not be sent to LabCorp location to have a specimen collected. Instead, an appropriate specimen must be collected at the healthcare facility where the patient was seen and the test was ordered. The specimen should be sent to the companies using standard procedures. Test results will be available in 3-4 days from the pickup of the specimen to release of the test result.