OSU COVID-19 Testing Lab Moves To New Permanent Home

Oklahoma State University's COVID-19 testing lab has moved to a new and permanent home. 

The lab moved into its new facility in the Venture One building over Labor Day weekend, a move that gives them their own space and a chance to grow in the future. 

"Primarily it helps us scale, we had reached maximum capacity of what we could do in the joint lab with animal diagnostics and human diagnostics going together," said Kenneth Sewell, Oklahoma State Vice President of Research. 

The lab runs around 1,100 to 1,200 tests a day with 10 people on staff. 

Sewell said they could expand their staff if they need to get even more testing done. 

"We're ready to do 2,000 a day with our current staffing level, but at this facility we could double that if need simply by adding staff," Sewell said. 

Since testing began in April, the lab has done more in-state testing than any other facility in Oklahoma. Sewell said there's been 140,000 tests done in Stillwater and 16,000 complete since moving to the new space.

"The country is in a crisis, the state is in this pandemic, and so it feels good in one way to be a positive force in a difficult time," Sewel said. 

Sewell said the staff is aware that every test is a person and the goal of the lab is to shorten the time someone must wait before getting their results back. 

"To know the reality and that time between knowing, yea I need to get tested because of x y or z and when you find out the answer that is a nerve-wracking time,” Sewell said. “The fact that we can make that time be as short as possible and a confident answer that feels good.” 

The lab can get most results returned in about 24 hours.