A Fort Payne, Alabama, medical lab that began conducting and analyzing COVID-19 tests last week tested more than 1,000 specimens in a single day on Tuesday for the first time to help to determine who is infected with the growing coronavirus.
Gene Cleckler, owner of Data Test Program Management (DTPM) and its molecular testing subsidiary Tide Laboratories, said the lab has shifted and added staff, brought in a half dozen ThermoFisher QuantStudio machines and added a second shift to meet the rising demand for performing the tests to determine whether individuals are infected with COVID-19.
After being swamped with requests for the COVID-19 tests last week, Clecker decided Sunday to give priority to processing the COVID-19 results ahead of other respiratory and virus testing results.
"We're testing COVID first and we've been ramping up getting our lab able to handle the increasing volume," Cleckler said Wednesday. "We've done several hundred tests every day and yesterday we did over a thousand for the first time, which was a great accomplishment."
Cleckler said so far DTPB has received specimens from its customer laboratories in a half dozen states, including from major labs it has set up in Atlanta and Colorado Springs., as well as local hospitals in Northwest Alabama.
By prioritizing the COVID-19 tests, Cleckler said he expects to be able to turn around the results of the specimen tests sent to the lab within 24 to 48 hours.
The assessment of how many and what people may have the coronavirus has been restricted, to some extend, due to limited supplies of approved tests for the virus. President Trump said more than 1 million tests for the COVID-19 virus had been conducted as of Monday throughout the United States - more than in any country but still less than what many are wanting.
To help expedite and expand testing in Chattanooga, a lab was set up and began testing last week for COVID-19 at Baylor School in a unique arrangement with Hamilton County to provide testing for local hospitals. The Baylor lab began testing COVID-19 swabs from local hospital staff and patients last Thursday and has tested 170 specimens since last Friday, according to Dr. Dawn Richards, who is one of the scientists conducting the tests. Richards said Baylor expects to receive more specimens now that Hamilton County is opening a drive-through for COVID-19 tests.
In Fort Payne, Cleckler's DTPM began developing a COVID-19 test in January after noticing the epidemic in China. The company developed a test using a process called polymerase chain reaction to identify coronavirus genes. Tide Laboratories used data released by Chinese scientists and the lab was able last month to secure an actual sample of coronavirus to make sure the test was accurate.
DTPM has been authorized to begin the testing as it waits on the Food and Drug Administration for final approval of its testing method and process.
"I could have as much business as we want to, but we really have to gauge what we can do to make sure we do a good job," Cleckler said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340