Richard Abrazi, COO and Managing Director of Alliance Laboratories — an independent, full-service clinical and anatomical pathology laboratory — joins other labs in the U.S. in calling for the clearance of private labs to immediately begin testing patients who show signs of Coronavirus infection.
“No accurate estimate of the real spread of this virus can be created until patients with symptoms are able to be tested in their communities and receive a timely diagnosis,” he said. “There may be tens of thousands more cases spreading and infecting Americans, which will overwhelm our medical facilities and potentially cause many more deaths.”
According to a recent NBC News report, private labs have been in touch with the Department of Health and Human Services since mid-January about developing their own tests. But the federal government didn't issue new rules speeding the approval process for commercial, research and academic labs until Feb. 29. This has curtailed testing of potentially thousands of U.S. citizens.
“Since 2000, we have provided over 500 different types of testing in the areas of blood and pathology and delivered over 20 million test results to patients and physicians in California, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois,” he said.
“We are fully equipped to begin testing Americans who show symptoms of Coronavirus, following FDA approval, as are many of our peer labs around the country. The longer the FDA waits, the more at risk the U.S. for a grave pandemic emergency that will overwhelm our facilities and our economy.”
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Source: Alliance Laboratories
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