[KarlInOhio]

What does a COVID-19 test entail? The doctor takes my blood sample or a swab of my mouth, seals it up and sends it to the lab. What then? Hours of processing, centrifuging, roasting in an easy-bake oven? Or just dripping the sample on a reagent of some type and looking at the results like blood-typing is? How long does a rush order take (this is more than life-or-death, this is an NBA player's test!)?

Just wondering of anyone knows.

[21twelve]

In one of the press conferences, the tests they were running (on a nasal swab I think) can be run in a few minutes with the results. It can be done by “local” labs. In Seattle they had two labs that could run them, but I think they have more now. The biggest factor is the time from taking the sample and getting it to the lab.

I’m guessing they wait until they have a bunch of samples to run, so maybe a suburban hospital makes a run at noon and another at 6 pm to send off the batches?