Labs report severe backlog, extended turnaround times for Covid-19 results expected

Private laboratories such as Ampath and Lancet have reported a severe backlog in Covid-19 tests, affecting how long it takes for people to get their virus results.

Forder said although Ampath continued to ramp up Covid-19 testing capacity, the volume of Covid-19 samples received over the last week impacted negatively the turnaround-time.“Due to the volume of samples received daily, ill hospitalised patients, healthcare workers, symptomatic patients and high-risk vulnerable patients with comorbidities will be our first priority for Covid-19 testing,” he said.

Contact persons showing no symptoms were advised to self-quarantine for 14 days and only test when they show symptoms.“This will depend on the distance from the collection site to performing laboratory and the volume of tests at the laboratory. Other patient result turnaround-time could be over 96 hours.”“We apologise in advance for the delayed Covid-19 test turnaround times and we assure you we will continue in our efforts to ramp up capacity in order to reduce this going forward.

Dealing with the backlog, Lancet said it would not prioritise patients seeking to retest after 14 days of initial tests, low-risk contacts requesting testing eight days after of exposure and low-risk contacts.

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