AHN turning Pittsburgh auditorium into covid-19 test kit production site

The Allegheny Health Network is proactively preparing for a local surge in covid-19 cases by producing test kits at its Highmark Health Penn Avenue Place in Downtown Pittsburgh, an AHN official said Thursday.

The network aims to produce 20,000 to 30,000 kits in the coming weeks, continuing production through the surge and after, said Dr. Brian Parker, AHN’s chief quality and learning officer.

“This is really just being proactive so we can maintain our internal supply chain,” Parker said. “Our goal right now is to produce in the coming weeks somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 of them. As demand increases, we’ll continue to assess how many to make moving forward.”

Covid-19 cases continue to climb across the state. Parker said the region is still on the “back end” of a virus curve, and health experts are unsure how many people could be infected. He said experts are closely monitoring conditions in New York.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported Thursday that the state has 92,381 confirmed cases and 2,373 people have died so far from the disease, according to the New York Times. More than 13,300 New Yorkers are in hospitals and 3,396 are in intensive care.

Pennsylvania health officials Thursday reported an additional 1,211 positive cases with 16 more deaths across the state. The statewide total Thursday was 7,016 with 90 deaths. Allegheny County is up to 419 cases with two deaths. Westmoreland County has 84 cases with no deaths.

Parker, who heads AHN’s pandemic response team, said the network decided to begin production of kits because of uncertainty surrounding the number of kits available from distributors. Plus, shipment dates and times are not guaranteed, he said.

He said a myriad of employees from across the system are assembling kits in a building auditorium. They consist of a biohazard bag, instructions for caregivers and a swab and sterile test tube with a screw top. About 3 mm of liquid testing medium is in the test tube.

“What we’ve done is we’ve brought together all of the individual components of the kits, set them up on tables and we repackage them into appropriate storage boxes,” Parker said.

AHN plans to use the kits in its facilities and at drive-through testing sites at Wexford, Bethel Park and Monroeville. Parker said in-patient testing would take about 24 hours. Outpatient testing can take five to seven days.