In Bay Area: New lab could double virus- testing capacity.
California on Friday opened a new lab that by next spring could double the state’s daily coronavirus testing capacity, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced at a ribboncutting ceremony.
The lab, located in Valencia ( Los Angeles County), will initially aim to process 40,000 tests a day, with the goal of conducting up to 150,000 tests a day by March, Newsom said. The state currently conducts about 120,000 tests a day.
“More testing is a good thing,” Newsom said. “More testing is foundational and fundamental to getting around this disease and mitigating its spread. More testing is something we should be promoting.”
The lab was announced in August. It cost $ 100.2 million upfront, including $ 25 million to build the Valencia facility, Newsom said. Test results will be returned in 24 to 48 hours. That is in line with the average test turnaround time in California,
which is 1.2 days, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The state is contracting with several companies to run the lab and related services, including Massachusetts firm Perkin Elmer, to provide the machines and supplies, such as chemical reagents and swabs; Burlingame company Color for the software; and FedEx to ship samples. The state’s contract with Perkin Elmer is worth up to $ 1.7 billion, and runs from
August until October 2021.
The more tests the lab conducts, the cheaper each test will cost, Newsom said. At 100,000 tests a day, each test would cost $ 37.78, and that would drop to $ 30.78 if the lab conducts 150,000 tests a day. That is significantly lower than the average $ 150 it costs to conduct one test, Newsom said.
California has largely managed to keep infection rates under better control than most states. But the number of average new daily cases has been ticking up over the past two weeks, reaching just over 4,000 new cases on Friday — up from about 3,200 in midOctober. The state’s test positivity rate, another measure of how quickly the virus is spreading, has also been rising gradually to 3% — up from 2.5% two weeks ago, according state data.
“This lab is happening right at the right time,” Newsom said.