TUCSON - More than 500 COVID-19 sample collection kits were delivered to the Banner-University Medical Center Wednesday afternoon.
With Southern Arizona facing a major shortage of COVID-19 testing kits, the University of Arizona has been hard at work producing new kits to be distributed to local healthcare facilities.
According to UArizona officials, Dr. David Harris and his lab team have produced about 1,650 test kits last week. He said UArizona Health Sciences Biorepository aims to produce 500 kits a day, resulting in thousands of additional kits in the next couple weeks, if their labs receive more swabs.
“The production of COVID-19 test kits is a priority," Harris said. "Our goal is to serve the needs of the wider university community during this time of extreme need.”
UArizona plans to continue to provide and distribute kits to Banner-UMC Tucson, Pima County, UArizona Campus Health and first responders.
“We greatly appreciate the efforts by our partner, the University of Arizona, in supplying this critical community need for COVID-19 specimen collection test kits. We are grateful for Dr. Harris and his Biorepository research team’s dedication to increase our community’s capacity for testing,” said Chad Whelan, MD, chief executive officer for Banner – University Medicine Tucson.
