Test Nebraska’s new lab is ready to process up to three thousand swabs a day as the state looks to increase its testing. The lab at CHI St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln handles all the swabs collected by the Test Nebraska program. During a tour of the lab Thursday, hospital president Derek Vance explained the analysis process.
Lab worker inside Test Nebraska lab at CHI St Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln. (Photo by John Schreier)
“The State Patrol will bring the specimens in in coolers and once each specimen is put into the system with a bar code scan, it’s put into one of our several pipette stations and that’s where the real work begins,” Vance said. “It’s a very manual process up front that gets all the specimens out into a larger tray and then once those are in that tray, then the process becomes a bit more automated.”
Several robotic machines handle some of the analysis. The equipment was purchased by the State of Nebraska as part of the Test Nebraska program. Vance says the lab is now fully staffed.
“20-25 is what we’ll get up to, workers in the lab, that are just in this space supporting Test Nebraska,” Vance said while standing next to automated processing machines. “The investment in the equipment was all done through the state, between this robot and there’s some robots next door.”
Lab testing started more than three weeks ago, but so far, the daily totals have been significantly below the 3,000 tests-a-day goal the state had hoped for. More than 150,000 people have signed-up for testing at the Test Nebraska website.