Tennessee Health Commissioner Says State Is Working To Speed Up Results

As Tennessee sees a surge in COVID-19 cases, it’s also experiencing long delays in test results.

“Now we are meeting the classic issue of supply versus demand,” Piercey said during the governor’s weekly press briefly on Thursday. “And the demand is just outpacing what most of our labs can supply.”

State Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey says private labs are doing their best to ensure patients have their results in a timely manner. Meanwhile, the state’s lab will hire new employees and buy new equipment so they can process results 24-hours a day.

Currently the average time a test sits in a lab is about three days. But, when adding transportation and back-end logistics, it takes over five days for a person to see results.