COVID-19 test lab is up and running at UCSC
Campus site could eventually boost capacity to 1,000 daily tests
SANTA CRUZ >> A new COVID-19 testing lab is up and running at UC Santa Cruz, with its first batch of samples expected to arrive Wednesday.
Initially serving patients of the campus Student Health Center and Santa Cruz Community Health Centers, the diagnostic lab opened Friday.
UCSC hopes to serve more area health centers in the weeks and months ahead, according to campus officials — but which provider could be next in line has yet to be determined.
Launching with an initial capacity of 30- 40 tests per day, the campus lab aims to reach 200 daily tests by June 1.
And depending on Santa Cruz County’s health care needs and the success of the lab’s early efforts, it may eventually be able to ramp up to as many as 1,000 tests per day.
Turnaround time for the tests will be 24- 48 hours, according to professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology Jeremy Sanford.
“It’s truly amazing how far we’ve been able to come since we started planning for this in March,” said John MacMillan, UCSC’s associate vice chancellor for research and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry who was quoted in a prepared release prior to the lab’s Friday opening.
“We are having ongoing discussions with the county and local medical providers about how we can help meet their needs for coronavirus testing,” MacMillan added.
Testing will be conducted by a team of 12 researchers at UCSC’s Molecular Diagnostic Lab.
Initial costs are being absorbed by UCSC “in the interest of moving as fast as possible,” according to information provided by campus officials. UCSC is working to find donors and other funding sources to cover ongoing costs.
Results from more than 4,300 COVID-19 tests on county residents have been reported to date. A total of 138 people have tested positive for the virus since the county confirmed its first case on March 6, including 107 who have since recovered and two who died.
Increasing testing capacity is a key priority for local health officials together with improved contact tracing.
Boosting that capacity has been cited as a prerequisite for further easing shelter- in- place restrictions on residents and businesses under the county’s new four-phase plan.
“We’re ready to step up and help meet the need in our community,” Sanford, the UCSC professor, said in the campus release last week. “Extra testing capacity is needed now, and will be critical once things start to reopen, and that’s what we’re trying to provide.”
A “testing task force” is working to produce a daily testing target in coming weeks, Health Services Agency Director Mimi Hall said at a news conference last week.
At least eight testing sites are or will soon be available to Santa Cruz County residents in total, according to information shared by Hall.
They include the UCSC lab, availability at a UC San Francisco lab, a Health Services Agency site on Emeline Avenue, two Dignity Health sites, Watsonville Hospital and a separate Watsonville site set to open this week.
“If each of those even just did 100 a day — and they all capacity for more — that’s a significant number of tests per day for the county,” Hall said.
At least eight testing sites are or will soon be available to Santa Cruz County residents in total, according to information shared by Hall.