LSU Health Shreveport announces creation of COVID-19 testing laboratory

With the support of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, scientists at LSU Health Shreveport established the Emerging Viral Threat Lab to address the need for faster detection and processing of COVID-19 tests.

The EVT Lab is the first in north Louisiana approved by CMS to conduct and analyze tests to determine if an individual has COVID-19.

Dr. G. E. Ghali, chancellor of LSUHS, said during a Wednesday press conference announcing the new testing lab that, “Around the 17 of March, I approached the governor and said we have a few road blocks to this and we need your help. Without any questions he jumped right in and created an executive order and by March 25, today, the lab is up and running.”

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Ghali mentioned that Louisiana has the fastest growth of confirmed cases in the entire world and is No. 3 in the United States for per capita cases. Ghali called the information scary.

“I still see people running around and shopping with impunity and hanging out,” Ghali said. “This is not acceptable.”

The lab has the capability to have a test done within 24 to 48 hours, which will cut down on the number of patients that need to be admitted, the number of patients that will need to be isolated and so on.

Additionally, the testing site will be able to receive samples or specimens that come in from various places whether from a partner hospital or some other outside source. Tests will be turned around in a very rapid order. However, that does not mean people can go to the lab to get tested.

Other testing sites exist along with other testing protocols.

More:Where you can go in Shreveport-Bossier City for testing, screening for COVID-19

Current Centers for Disease Control and prevention guidelines are in place for who gets tested.

“This will really help health care providers identify individuals who are positive for the virus so that they can make proper decisions and handle them not only in the hospital but perhaps identify them and say go home, take rest and we will check back with you later on,” said Dr. Chris Kevil, vice chancellor for research at LSU Health.

The new lab also will help with testing at the various Louisiana state parks that are being used as staging areas for the homeless and elderly population.

More:Louisiana state parks closed to public, used as staging areas for coronavirus patients