New Jersey lab develops 2-hour test for coronavirus, requests live samples from CDC

NUTLEY, N.J. — Results from coronavirus tests can take days to reach area hospitals, so an area lab has developed a layered test that can improve accuracy and speed for New Jersey residents who may be infected.

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez toured the facility in Nutley today and he is calling on the Centers for Disease Control to validate the lab’s method and send live samples of the virus.

"We want a test that’s local, that we can use," said Dr. David S. Perlin of Hackensack Meridian Health's Center for Discovery & Innovation.

Right now, hospitals have no way to test for COVID-19, other than to ask patients clinical questions about their symptoms, where they've traveled and who they've been in contact with. If a patient appears to be symptomatic for coronavirus, they must send patient samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"We don’t want to cause unnecessary hype," said Perlin, "but this problem is a serious one, and we want to address it through preparedness."

The Center for Discovery and Innovation says they use the utmost safety protocols to keep the virus contained to the laboratory setting. The building is a negative pressure facility, meaning no air leaves without being filtered.

New Jersey’s Department of Health just got clearance today to begin testing for coronavirus in state laboratories.

"I don’t think there is enough testing going," said Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ). "The sooner, the broader we make [testing] happen, I think, the better off we will be."

Menendez called the federal administrations response inadequate.

"The administration may have sent government workers to quarantined sites without adequate protection and training," he said. "And then allowed those workers to mingle into the general population and even take commercial flights."

Menendez said he supports Senator Chuck Schumer’s request for $8.5B in federal funding to fight the virus.

He is also pushing the CDC to validate Hackensack Meridian's Nutley lab for testing.