California residents will soon be able to access rapid and affordable COVID turnaround testing, Governor Gavin Newsom has announced.
Newsom held a press conference Wednesday to announce a new partnership with diagnostics company PerkinElmer (Waltham, MA) that he said will dramatically improve the state’s testing ability.
PerkinElmer will create a new testing lab in the state, one that Newsom said will be built out over the next eight to ten weeks. Once operational, the new lab will facilitate accelerated testing, contract tracing and other diagnostic benefits, said Newsom.
The state has “pushed the testing envelope,” the governor said, and will soon be able to provide coronavirus rapid testing results, perhaps within 24 hours, and in “no more than 48 hours” across the state.
In addition to adding as many as 150,000 tests per day, the new testing apparatus should reduce the COVID test cost to only about one-third of tests currently being offered by the federal government, the governor said.
From a range of $150-200 per federal test, Newsom said the new partnership will bring testing costs for California residents down to less than $50, and in some cases, potentially as low as $30 each.
“I’m very pleased to make this announcement,” said Newsom, noting that “we (California) are doing what the federal government should be doing.” Newsom said the state’s massive “market muscle” created the economic scalability “to drive down (testing) costs.”
The enhanced testing effort will provide “much more stability” for people are who “are at risk,” he added. Newsom said the new testing supply chain should be in place before the rapidly approaching flu season.
In the addition to the new contract with PerkinElmer, Newsom said there will be a number of other “third-party” agreements required to facilitate the agreement. They will all be made public, he added.
Once in place, the governor said the state’s new testing regime will allow for “real-time” decisions to be made by state and local officials that could be critical for reopening schools and businesses across the state.
