COVID-19 FAQs

IGeneX is supporting the public health response to expand the availability of testing for COVID-19, which has now been detected in multiple locations around the world. IGeneX is a fully certified high-complexity testing lab with a long history of performing molecular and immunological diagnostic testing.

Our primary focus as a company has been to provide diagnostic testing for Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. Now, we have leveraged our resources and capabilities to make available COVID-19 testing for the entire community. This includes our Lyme patients, who are naturally at risk because they are immunosuppressed, as well as any other individuals who are at risk or have symptoms of the Coronavirus.

IGeneX uses a Real time RT-PCR test to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It starts with a nasopharyngeal swab, which looks like a long Q-tip that draws mucus from the back of a patient’s nasal cavity where it meets the throat. This swab is placed into a vial with transport medium and shipped to IGeneX. Once the sample arrives at the lab, nucleic acids are extracted from an aliquot of the clinical sample; SARS-CoV-2 specific viral RNA, if present in the extracted nucleic acid sample, is amplified and then detected by SARS-CoV-2 specific probes.

24-72 hours from receiving the specimen to release of the test result.

Not necessarily. IGeneX’s testing for COVID-19 detects the virus directly, within the established limits of detection for which it was validated. A positive result is considered definitive evidence of infection. However, a negative result does not definitively rule out infection. As with any test, the accuracy relies on many factors:

• The test may not detect virus in an infected patient if the virus is not being actively shed at the time or site of sample collection.
• The amount of time that an individual was exposed prior to the collection of the specimen can also influence whether the test will detect the virus.
• Individual response to the virus can differ.
• Whether the specimen we receive was collected properly, sent promptly, and packaged correctly.