Quest Diagnostics to Provide Covid-19 School Testing Services in Texas

By Michael Dabaie

Quest Diagnostics Inc. said it was in an agreement with the Texas Department of State Health Services to provide Covid-19 kindergarten through senior school testing services.

Ginkgo Bioworks, through its Concentric by Ginkgo program, would provide support services, such as online reporting and site staffing, for the program.

With thousands of schools eligible for the program throughout over 1,150 districts in Texas, Quest Diagnostics said it would offer Covid-19 testing services to participating public, private and charter K-12 schools for the duration of the 2021-2022 school year.

Quest will perform testing using polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, and other nucleic acid amplification test technologies through its clinical laboratories in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas.

Under the state program, school administrators can elect to implement a testing program through pooled testing.

Pooled testing combines specimens, typically nasal swabs, from all consenting individuals in a classroom and runs them as a single test.

Write to Michael Dabaie at michael.dabaie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 20, 2021 09:12 ET (13:12 GMT)

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