TOLEDO, Ohio — Lucas County announced Monday afternoon that leaders reached an agreement with Quest Diagnostics to test the 6,000 residents and workers at the county's 67 long-term living facilities.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, nursing facilities have been the most vulnerable population to COVID-19 because of patients' age, underlying health conditions and close living environment.
Lucas County Health Commissioner Eric Zgodzinski said the county reached out to Quest on Friday.
Conversations continued over the weekend and Quest Vice President and Midwest Regional Manager Matthew Hamlin said that his company has begun delivering the first 500 test kits and he expects the county to have nearly 5,000 test kits by the end of the week. This will be continued until these facilities have 100% coverage, he said.
Hamlin said that high-priority patients will be able to get test results the next day and other patients and workers will get results in two to three days.