The University System of Georgia, the Georgia Public Health Laboratory and Emory University will be collaborating to increase Georgia’s COVID-19 testing to process more than 3,000 samples a day.

Earlier in March, the state had been limited to processing about 100 samples a day, but officials had said they were working to increase testing.

The partnership allows for Georgia’s universities to transfer the equipment needed for COVID-19 testing from their research labs to accredited clinical labs at Georgia State University, Augusta University of the Health Sciences, Emory University and the Georgia Public Health Lab to perform the tests. 

The Governor’s Office has expedited the purchase of supplies to begin ramping up testing over the next five to seven days.

“Working collectively with our partners in the University System of Georgia will greatly expand our testing capacity. That means identifying more cases, getting more people into care, and protecting our communities from the spread of COVID-19,” Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen E. Toomey said in a statement. “This collaboration will not only provide much-needed capacity now, but it will ensure a robust state infrastructure for the future.”

A lack of supplies has been a barrier in testing capabilities as the state has had issues securing the supplies from commercial vendors. 

“We hope this surge capacity plan will allow federal and state public health officials to gain a more complete picture of COVID-19's impact on Georgia and better inform our collective decisions going forward,” Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement.

Compiled from Governor’s Office press release.