With help from U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), UC Health of southwest Ohio gained a new cobas 6800 diagnostic machine this week, which it intends to up its COVID-19 testing capabilities to nearly 1,000 tests per day.
“We are grateful to Senator Portman for his assistance in procuring this specialized equipment, which will enable UC Health to further grow our ability to perform in-house testing for COVID-19,” Dr. Richard Lofgren, UC Health President & CEO, said. “We are working to grow our capacity to test for COVID-19 within our laboratories, and as testing supplies and capacity increase, we intend to be able to provide access to testing to our larger community.”
UC Health, which serves as Greater Cincinnati’s academic health system, just began performing in-house testing for COVID-19 this week. While the cobas 6800 machine had been previously purchased, the institution was put on a waiting list when the manufacturer withheld the machine. Portman pointed to vague federal guidance as the cause, but the machine should now be headed for Cincinnati.
“It is vital that we get more testing equipment into Ohio so that Ohioans experiencing symptoms and their health care providers can be certain if they have COVID-19 and provide appropriate treatment. We’ve especially had difficulties in increasing testing capabilities in southwest Ohio,” Portman said. “Testing is also how we’ll ultimately overcome this pandemic because once we have solid data on the scope of the disease, we’ll be able to steer our resources where they’re needed, and we’ll be able to know when it is safe to open up our economy.”