Arizona’s largest lab bolstering COVID-19 test operation

(KYMA, KECY/AP News) - Arizona’s largest diagnostic testing lab will be expanding its operation and be able to take on thousands more Covid-19 test samples.

Officials at Sonora Quest Laboratories made the announcement Tuesday after a record-breaking day last week of Covid-19 tests, going through almost 30,000 PCR tests on January 4th, which is the most since the pandemic began.

The lab plans to add another “line” by this weekend, for a total of eight lines devoted to COVID testing. A line means a team of equipment, plus 27 staffers including technicians and scientists.

This means Sonora Quest would be able to go through as many as 38,000 tests in one day.

With a roughly 40% positivity rate among the tests it’s received in recent days, Arizona health officials reported 14,160 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 213 more deaths.