State officials say Oklahoma has received enough materials to run 10,000 tests for COVID-19.
They were trying to get their hands on the reagent needed for the tests. From photos tweeted by Gov. Kevin Stitt, the chemicals came from Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of a handful of companies given fast-track approval earlier this month for a commercial test to detect the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Like many states, Oklahoma’s efforts to identify cases have been hampered by a lack of testing supplies.
Former State Epidemiologist Laurence Burnsed had said states and private laboratories were all turning to the same suppliers for testing materials, leading to a bottleneck.