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Starting today, people in the US can order the tests on Quest's consumer site without visiting a doctor's office. The test costs $119, and requests are reviewed by licensed physicians. After ordering the test, you have to go give a blood sample at a Quest testing center. The tests aren't used to diagnose a current infection with coronavirus. Rather, they're intended to figure out whether people have had the disease in the past.

Quest, one of the nation’s top commercial laboratory companies, has dialed up testing as the pandemic increasingly infects American citizens. Quest’s journey to helping aid in the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the United States began seven weeks ago when the Food and Drug Administration authorized the commercial lab company to move forward with developing and running its own test, under a temporary emergency authorization.

Quest Diagnostics, through its “Peace of Mind” program, is taking extra measures to ensure individuals who are the most vulnerable to adverse COVID-19 outcomes have special access to the company’s 2,250 patient service centers across the United States. Through this new program, individuals who are 60 years or older – or have other conditions known to raise the risk of an unfavorable outcome from COVID-19 – will have special access to centers during the first hour of each day each center opens.

CEO Steve Rusckowski joins “Closing Bell” to discuss the company’s coronavirus testing efforts.

Quest Diagnostics received on Tuesday Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for its SARS-CoV-2 rRT PCR test. The issuance allows Quest to provide the test for individuals suspected by their healthcare providers of having COVID-19.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker pledged Thursday morning that Massachusetts would soon see an “enormous increase” in testing for coronavirus as he acknowledged that the state’s capacity to screen people remained far below what was needed to blunt the local impact of the pandemic. Baker spoke to reporters after touring the private laboratory at Quest Diagnostics, which plans to rapidly ramp up its coronavirus testing. By next week, Quest hope to preform 2,000 to 3,000 tests a day at its facility in Marlborough, according to its chief executive officer, Steve Rusckowski, who joined Baker at the press conference

Quest Diagnostics Inc. made coronavirus tests available on Monday in California as part of a broader roll-out meant to dramatically expand the U.S.’s capacity to identify new cases. The company’s effort began when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave companies greater leeway to develop their own tests Feb. 29, Chief Executive Officer Steve Rusckowski said in an interview. Quest sprang into action, obtaining specimens of the virus from South Korea, he said.

As Nevada manages the possible spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Steve Sisolak today announced the federal government has provisionally approved testing for the virus at commercial labs throughout the state.Sisolak at a late morning briefing said Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp will be able to test for COVID-19 in the “near future,” joining the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory at UNR and the Southern Nevada Public Health Laboratory, which each already has conducted a handful of tests leading to at least 14 negative results as of Friday.

U.S. government officials say a million promised tests for diagnosing coronavirus infections will soon be in the mail. But that still leaves many state and local laboratories without the ability to test for the virus, crucial for curbing its spread around the country.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Some states have developed their own tests. Clinical testing companies are now joining the ranks. LabCorp announced March 5 that physicians or other authorized health care providers could already order its test. Quest Diagnostics announced the same day that the company will also offer commercial tests as soon as March 9, pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviews. Participation of those two commercial laboratories could greatly expand testing capacity in the United States.