UPMC has developed a test for the novel coronavirus 2019 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — and will use this test to diagnose select, symptomatic cases. The health system plans to rapidly increase capacity at its central laboratory and, if there is a need, could test hundreds of patients per week in the near future, filling a critical gap before other commercial tests come online.

“Developing this test for a never-before-seen virus in the midst of a pandemic was a tremendous challenge, even for our academic medical center with its long history of such developments,” said Alan Wells, medical director of the UPMC Clinical Laboratories and Thomas Gill III Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Additionally, UPMC Tuesday will begin directing patients with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 to a specimen collection site in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood. The site is not open to the general public. Patients must have a physician referral approved by UPMC's infection prevention team and an appointment to have their specimen collected for testing by either UPMC or public health authorities.