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Arkansas health officials outline testing shortfalls, lab upgrades and contact-tracing scale-up
Summary
State health officials told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that long commercial-lab turnaround times are hampering contact tracing, described steps to expand in-state lab capacity and outlined how CARES-funded contact-tracing contracts will be stood up across Arkansas.
State health officials told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that long commercial-lab turnaround times are undermining the state’s contact-tracing efforts and described immediate steps to increase in-state testing capacity.
At a July committee session, Dr. Jennifer Dillehay, state epidemiologist, said the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) public-health laboratory can deliver results in roughly 48 hours depending on specimen transit. By contrast, commercial labs have been reporting results in “7 to 10 days and in some cases longer,” officials said. Dillehay reported a recent daily positive rate of 5.8% and an overall positive rate of 7.9%.
Officials said the public-health lab has added 24/7 shifts, hired additional microbiologists, and operates multiple platforms. ADH has two PerkinElmer high-throughput instruments in operation and has ordered…
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