Program to help those in need get tested

Quest Diagnostics and Quest Diagnostics Foundation are launching a $100 million investment program to reduce disparities in communities hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials said the initiative will focus on serving people of color, elderly and homeless populations throughout the nation.

“Through our role providing testing to the nation, Quest has seen how underserved populations have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 with tragic consequences,” said Steve Rusckowski, chairman, president and CEO of Quest Diagnostics.

“Quest plans to donate testing services and educational initiatives to improve access to testing and awareness of the value of diagnostic insights, which are the basic building blocks needed to build healthier communities,” he said.

The company and the Quest Foundation, a charity, will partner with federally qualified health centers, long-term care facilities, schools and universities, community organizations and others to find new ways to address health disparities, he said.

For more information on the initiative, contact CommunityHealthInitiative@questdiagnostics. com.

To date, Quest has the capacity to produce 165,000 COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test results a day, and hopes to produce 185,000 test results a day by Labor Day.

Since the pandemic began in March, Quest has provided 12.5 million diagnostic test results obtained in 12 laboratories throughout the country.

The closest to Berks County is in Teterboro, N.J., north of Newark.

The average turnaround time for Quest’s COVID-19 molecular diagnostic testing is one to two days for priority patients, which includes hospitalized patients, individuals in longterm care facilities and presurgery patients.

For all others, the results are available in two days.

The logistics for the ferrying of test samples is headquartered at the Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township.