As labs are busily testing Onondaga County residents for the coronavirus, and tests continue to go to the state Department of Health's Wadsworth lab in Albany, Dr. Stephen Thomas of Upstate University Hospital says the goal has always been to have testing capabilities in Syracuse.

“We have multiple lines in the water to try and see which test we can adopt when they are made available to us," Thomas said Monday during Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon's briefing. "We are working very hard and we’re lucky to have the government that we have because they are working on our behalf to try and get these capabilities in-house at Upstate. We do it for many different tests, we can do it for this.

"It’s just a matter of us getting the materials we need, getting the panels that we need to get authorized to do the testing, and then to do the testing."

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Thomas said that, if tests can be conducted locally in just a couple of hours, it "would be a game-changer."

He didn't have a specific timeline for when testing could be handled completely in Syracuse, but added, "My optimism is measured, but I'm still optimistic."