Both Hattiesburg hospitals are now processing their own COVID-19 tests.
Forrest General Hospital started testing samples last week. The hospital runs the Cepheid Infinity System, which delivers results within an hour. Up to 200 tests per day can be processed, and, in the near future, hospital officials expect to up that capacity to 500 tests per day.
Forrest General is limiting testing to patients within its system and will not test asymptomatic individuals, according to a press release.
Millie Swan, a vice president for Forrest Health, said patients should continue to utilize the Cough & Fever Clinic, located near Walmart on U.S. 49 in Hattiesburg and operated in partnership with Hattiesburg Clinic, for evaluation in non-emergency situations.
The Cepheid system offers numerous benefits, hospital officials said, including safe methods for testing by hospital employees.
“Once the (testing) kit is closed and placed in the Cepheid Infinity System, it remains a closed system, so it doesn’t open up and expose anybody,” said Stephanie Brown, chief administrative technologist for Forrest General.
Merit Health Wesley started in-house COVID-19 test processing Monday morning, said Traci Rouse, the hospital’s vice president of marketing.
“Due to limited allocation of testing materials, we will limit in-house testing to hospitalized patients,” said Rouse.
Rouse added that samples will be tested around the clock seven days a week, and 128 tests can be performed daily if the testing materials are available.
“The rapid turnaround time on these tests will significantly reduce the amount of personal protective equipment used while a patient is under investigation,” she said.
The Mississippi State Department of Health said Monday evening that 37,733 individuals across the state have been tested for COVID-19 with 9,412 tested by the department’s public health lab and 28,321 tested by other providers, including commercial labs and the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Forrest General provides daily testing updates at fhcovid19.com. According to the website, the numbers are a combination of Forrest Health and Hattiesburg Clinic tests. Forrest Health covers a 19-county service area, and numbers for specific counties are not separately listed.
As of Monday afternoon, the website reported 2,613 tests with 244 positive cases and 2,093 negative cases. There were 276 cases pending.
Wesley does not publicly release testing numbers, according to hospital officials.
