HHS is sending tests to large commercial labs while other labs are prepping assays as part of what some suggest is a more coordinated response than that to COVID-19.
Clinical laboratories prepare for coronavirus variants
Adam Bonislawski, 360Dx
NEW
YORK
– As new variants of SARS-CoV-2 continue to emerge, clinical labs are having to develop new and evolve existing approaches to test for the virus.
While existing molecular tests appear to be capable of detecting the new UK and South Africa SARS-Cov-2 strains that have been the focus of much recent attention and concern, the appearance of these and other variants could require changes in labs testing processes and the development of better tools for monitoring the presence of relevant variants in the patients they serve.
The most immediate concern from a lab s perspective is that the mutations that characterize major SARS-CoV-2 variants may make molecular or antigen tests for detecting the virus less effective by altering the regions of RNA or protein these tests target.
How will labs use expanded molecular testing capacities post-COVID-19? Adam Bonislawski, GenomeWeb
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With COVID-19 vaccinations beginning this week in the US, the country is entering a new stage of the pandemic that could ultimately end in widespread suppression of the virus.
The implications of this development for the lab industry are not entirely clear, but after almost a year spent building out molecular capacities to meet COVID-19 test demand, the question of what to do with that capacity in a post-COVID-19 environment looms on the horizon.
According to data from revenue cycle management and lab informatics firm Xifin, across the lab industry as a whole, as of Dec. 12, 2020, total testing volumes were 245 percent of baseline testing volumes, with around 55 percent of that volume COVID-19 molecular testing. While molecular testing labs have led the way, with volumes at 538 percent of baseline (and 79 percent of that volume due to COVID-19 molecular testing), all other