Starting on Wednesday, a Springfield lab plans to offer testing of COVID-19 for patients referred by their health care providers. Officials hope this will lessen the wait times for test results and slow the spread of the illness.
The private lab, Dynamic DNA Laboratories, confirmed with KSMU is has 4,000 test kits to distribute, and it’s already ordered 4,000 more kits.
Austin O’Reilly is the CEO of Dynamic DNA, and he spoke at a virtual press conference Tuesday in Springfield.
"We're seeing turnaround times of seven to 10 days from local hospitals that are sending these out to some of the bigger commercial labs, and honestly, that's just too long," O'Reilly said.
Missouri, like other states, continues to face a shortage of tests. The kits will be distributed to Citizens Memorial Hospital, CoxHealth, Jordan Valley Community Health Center and Mercy, as well as the county’s mobile testing site. Patients will still need a referral from a health care provider to be tested.
Dynamic DNA partnered with the health department to seek funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health to help make this happen, according to a release from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
Dynamic DNA Laboratories normally analyzes DNA for proactive health and wellness testing.
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