SAN DIEGO (CNS) - UC San Diego and UC Davis are partnering with the state of California to help increase the number of coronavirus tests, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday.
The governor said during his daily televised briefing that officials have created a task force made up of private and public leaders with the goal to increase coronavirus testing samples.
He promised at least a five-fold increase in daily tests over the next few weeks.
"It's a new day and we've turned the page,'' to increase testing, Newsom said.
The governor admitted that the state has been too slow in this area. "On the issue of testing, I own that,'' Newsom said. "And you deserve more and better."
"We specifically have a new partnership with UC Davis and UC San Diego to create a minimum of five to seven hubs where we will work with different vendors to significantly increase our testing capacity and our collaborative spirit within those hubs,'' Newsom said.
The hubs will be spread throughout the state, Newsom said.
The governor also announced two new testing procedures that should greatly increase the number of samples tested.
Stanford medicine has produced a serum test, Newsom said, which is the first home-grown serum test in California.
He also announced a point-of-care test where hospitals can get results of a coronavirus positive test back in five minutes and a negative test result in 13 minutes.
Abbott Laboratories, which developed the point-of-care test, has committed to 75 testing sites in California, working with 13 hospital systems, Newsom said.
The state has tested 126,700 people for the coronavirus, with about 13,000 people awaiting results, the governor said.