NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With U.S. labs taking days and weeks to deliver COVID-19 test results to health agencies, clinicians, and patients, government authorities in hard-hit states like Florida and Louisiana have said enough, canceling contracts with major reference labs.
According to Florida’s Department of Health (DOH), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday ordered state health agencies to cut their ties with Quest Diagnostics, one of the country’s largest test labs, after the company failed to report nearly 75,000 coronavirus tests in a timely manner. Most of the unreported tests, the DOH said, are two-weeks old and some date back as many as five months. Similar backlogs with other labs are occurring in states throughout the U.S.
Yet in the wake of the glut, one regional lab, Sensiva Health, LLC continues same-day delivery from a pandemic epicenter – New Orleans – while serving large essential employers in petroleum, offshore drilling operations, healthcare, and other industries such as movie and commercial production sets.
“Major labs are promising states like Florida and Louisiana and agencies in other states results in a couple of days, but have far exceeded any reasonable throughput. Consequently it’s taking days, even weeks, to deliver results and at which point those results are no longer clinically relevant,” said Dave Vigerust, MS, Ph.D., and Sensiva’s Chief Scientific & Compliance Officer. “We’re testing for several offshore oil producers now to keep the rigs open. A single oil rig worker missing work can cost a company up to $20,000 per day; not to mention the cost of a closed rig due to a coronavirus shutdown, which could easily exceed millions of dollars per day. That’s why they’ve come to us. We are fast, reliable, and accurate.”
Sensiva was formed early in the pandemic by a team of infectious disease doctors and scientists to attack COVID-19 and help return the world to a healthy normalcy. Currently, its flagship test, Sensiva C19™ RT-PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) Molecular COVID-19 Test, provides greater than 99% accurate test results within 12-24 hours of receiving the sample.
“We’re able to easily keep ahead of a backlog because COVID-19 testing is all we do at Sensiva,” Vigerust added. “Our lab and technical staff are not bogged down by multiple assays and diseases. Our lab and research is laser-focused on the coronavirus.”
Sensiva can provide businesses and healthcare providers with risk exposure information and guidance via an online report, or by phone through Sensiva’s proprietary mobile application. While both clearly explain the test results, a team of telemedicine professionals are also available to answer questions via live chat, email, or phone support.
Authorized by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in June for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA200187) under Sensiva’s affiliate lab Cormeum Lab Services, Sensiva C19™ is a gold standard real-time multi-method collection test with as near to 100 percent specificity and sensitivity as possible, offering next-day results, making the test clinically relevant.
Based on the most powerful technique and tool in molecular biology, RT-PCR has proven to be the most reliable COVID-19 testing method. Using enzymes sourced from heat-stable bacteria to replicate DNA/RNA, Sensiva utilizes the latest technology platforms to perform this highly specific and reliable process, which results in rapid and highly accurate reproduction of DNA/RNA molecules in its laboratory.
About Sensiva Health, LLC:
Sensiva Health, LLC offers a variety of direct COVID-19 lab tests for informational and educational use. Sensiva's team is made up of doctors, lab directors, technology officers, infectious disease specialists, medical directors, and more, committed to using real-time PCR+Antigen/Antibody COVID-19 testing and proprietary advanced scientific modeling to safely get America back to normalcy. To learn more about Sensiva and its comprehensive COVID-19 testing solutions, please visit https://www.sensivahealth.com.
