Sterling Pathology urges scalable testing and PCR tests
LOS ANGELES—The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is spiking demand for testing as the holiday season advances. Sterling Pathology, a California-based lab, is urging organizations to adopt scalable testing and PCR tests. The pathology lab, headed by Dr. Yang, says that Omicron is creating a testing crisis as Americans grow Covid-anxious while facing holiday stress.
Per Politico, the Biden administration is privately warning Covid-19 test makers and laboratories “that demand for tests could double or even triple over the next two months as cases surge across the country.”
They say that internal modeling developed by the Health and Human Services Department’s (HHS) Testing and Diagnostic Working Group “projects that the nation’s supply could be stretched by the need to conduct 3 to 5 million tests per day by late January or early February — a sharp increase from current daily levels of more than 1.6 million.”
“Omicron is spiking demands for testing and we at Sterling Pathology are helping aid organizations in this battle against this new variant,” added Dr. Yang, Sterling Pathology medical director. “Sterling Pathology is offering solutions so communities and institutions can map out a scalable plan that includes PCR tests as well.”
Intelligencer reported that in “west Baltimore, PCR appointments are growing more difficult to find and clinics in Cambridge, Massachusetts have also been experiencing higher demand.”
And that “there are concerns that at-home kits may not be widely available and will remain expensive in the coming weeks, a week after the Biden administration faced significant pushback for refusing to provide free at-home testing for all Americans.”
Rapid tests can deliver results within 15 minutes and are becoming more popular because of their speed of reporting Covid-19 positive results. However, PCR tests are the “gold standard” and despite the longer 24-48 hour time window for results and can even detect results in asymptomatic cases.
The tests Sterling Pathology offers are FDA-approved for emergency use authorization (EUA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pathology and genomics lab offers tailored programs that allow large organizations like schools, businesses and governments to administer and oversee scalable testing.
“Preparedness and testing are our greatest weapons against this lethal virus and its variants that continue to spread,” said Dr. Yang. “Until we achieve scalable testing across institutions, we will continue to see these same reports and outbreaks.”
Sterling Pathology’s molecular testing is capable of detecting active COVID-19 infections in the human body. Unique genetic markers of the virus can be found in RNA that only remains in the body while the virus invades and replicates itself. The benefits of molecular testing is its sensitivity in detecting active infections, allowing patients to receive appropriate treatment options from their Care Provider, and take measures to prevent spreading the infections.
