Benzinga | Oct 20, 2021 08:38AM EDT

Quest Diagnostics Reports Deal With Texas Dept. Of State Health Services To Provide COVID-19 Kindergarten Through Grade 12 School Testing Services; Ginkgo Bioworks Will Provide Support Services

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX), the nation's leading provider of diagnostic information services, today announced it has formed an agreement with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to provide COVID-19 Kindergarten through Senior (K-12) school testing services to support safer classroom learning throughout the state of Texas. Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA), through its Concentric by Ginkgo program, will provide support services, such as online reporting and site staffing, for the program through its K-12 school testing collaboration with Quest.



With thousands of schools eligible for the program throughout over 1,150 districts in Texas, Quest Diagnostics will offer COVID-19 testing services to participating public, private and charter K-12 schools for the duration of the 2021-2022 school year. Quest will perform testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and other nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) technologies through its major clinical laboratories in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas.

Under the state program, school administrators can elect to implement a testing program that serves students, teachers and staff through pooled testing. Schools and families do not pay for testing. Instead, an Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) ReOpening Schools Grant, through a collaboration among the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and DSHS will cover the costs.

"Quest Diagnostics' expertise in COVID-19 testing can help kids and teachers learn more safely throughout Texas in person this school year," said Chad Richards, Vice President and General Manager, Southwest Region, Quest Diagnostics. "Testing is critical to containing COVID-19's spread and creating safer environments for all of us. We applaud the state of Texas for recognizing the value of testing for children, faculty and staff, and look forward to bringing our high quality and convenient testing capabilities to participating schools in the program."

A national leader in COVID-19 testing for patients and healthcare providers, Quest Diagnostics has deepened its K-12 school testing presence in recent weeks, directly and with collaborators. Quest was named one of the laboratory providers for Ginkgo's recently announced agreement to provide COVID-19 testing in K-12 schools across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the 2021-2022 school year. Quest Diagnostics also provides K-12 school testing in over 20 states nationwide.

"Our collaboration with Quest Diagnostics and Ginkgo Bioworks is meaningful because our COVID-19 testing practices are now supported by leaders in the healthcare industry," said Lonnie Morgan, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at ResponsiveEd, which is implementing pooled testing across all 85 of its schools in Texas. "By working together, our students, educators, and families have more peace of mind and our classrooms become better places for learning.

"It's a privilege for us to join with Quest Diagnostics and to work alongside educators and public health leaders across Texas to help keep kids in class and COVID out with this program," said Matt McKnight, Chief Commercial Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks and head of Concentric by Ginkgo. "Testing programs like this provide schools with the freedom and flexibility they need to interrupt chains of transmission and reduce disruption to all the incredibly important activities that happen in school communities every day."

Quest is a major healthcare services provider in Texas, and has approximately 4,200 employees across the state.