Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is converting a warehouse in Berkeley, Calif., into a $14 million testing site that will process 70,000 COVID-19 diagnostic tests per week, Berkeleyside reported.
The site will be fully operational by June 1 and serve as Kaiser's main testing site in Northern California.
Testing will be available for Kaiser members in Northern California and will start by testing patients who are at high risk of contracting the virus based on CDC guidelines, according to Berkeleyside.
The tests will produce results in under 24 hours, and Kaiser plans to broaden testing to asymptomatic patients, a spokesperson told Berkeleyside. The testing site won't process antibody tests.
Kaiser is also increasing its in-house testing from 1,000 tests per day to 1,500 tests per day using tests that produce results in 10 minutes for patients who are already hospitalized. The health system is working toward conducting 10,000 tests per day, according to Berkeleyside.
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