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Patients in NSW at high risk of dying from COVID-19 will now have access to rapid testing kits that will deliver a positive or negative result within 60 minutes.
The high-speed testing kits – known as polymerase chain reaction or PCR kits – have presently been in use in regional areas where clusters of concern were identified.
They'll now be rolled out to 29 testing laboratories around the state as NSW Health works to clamp down on generalised outbreaks of the disease in the coming months.
The new kits will deliver results within an hour. (NSW Health)
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says the testing kits will give medical teams hours up their sleeve to help treat high-risk patients.
"The faster we can isolate higher risk patients and quarantine their contacts, the less likely they can unknowingly spread it to others," Mr Hazzard said.
"On average, test results are being processed in less than 48 hours from the far corners of this vast state which is an achievement in itself, given the issues with flights and logistics.
"Now we will have even more vital hours up our sleeve, which will allow us to speed up our contract tracing efforts to map and isolate known contacts of cases."
Previously it took as long as 48 hours for COVID-19 test results to return to a lab. (NSW Health)
The kits are presently in use in NSW Health Pathology laboratories in Broken Hill, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Coffs Harbour and Tamworth.
NSW Health have confirmed that they have secured a supply chain to have the kits shipped to Australia from the US based on demand.
"These kits are in high demand globally but NSW Health Pathology is working with clinicians to ensure our most high risk patients reap the benefits," Mr Hazzard said.
NSW Health Pathology can perform more than 8,000 tests per day within its specialist laboratories, which continues to exceed current demand.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/c...-minutes/8bec5e04-3b57-4728-b62c-956d290f142a
The high-speed testing kits – known as polymerase chain reaction or PCR kits – have presently been in use in regional areas where clusters of concern were identified.
They'll now be rolled out to 29 testing laboratories around the state as NSW Health works to clamp down on generalised outbreaks of the disease in the coming months.
The new kits will deliver results within an hour. (NSW Health)
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says the testing kits will give medical teams hours up their sleeve to help treat high-risk patients.
"The faster we can isolate higher risk patients and quarantine their contacts, the less likely they can unknowingly spread it to others," Mr Hazzard said.
"On average, test results are being processed in less than 48 hours from the far corners of this vast state which is an achievement in itself, given the issues with flights and logistics.
"Now we will have even more vital hours up our sleeve, which will allow us to speed up our contract tracing efforts to map and isolate known contacts of cases."
Previously it took as long as 48 hours for COVID-19 test results to return to a lab. (NSW Health)
The kits are presently in use in NSW Health Pathology laboratories in Broken Hill, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Coffs Harbour and Tamworth.
NSW Health have confirmed that they have secured a supply chain to have the kits shipped to Australia from the US based on demand.
"These kits are in high demand globally but NSW Health Pathology is working with clinicians to ensure our most high risk patients reap the benefits," Mr Hazzard said.
NSW Health Pathology can perform more than 8,000 tests per day within its specialist laboratories, which continues to exceed current demand.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/c...-minutes/8bec5e04-3b57-4728-b62c-956d290f142a
