- As the coronavirus outbreak spreads across the US, private labs are spending millions to ramp up their testing capabilities.
- We visited one private lab in New York that's been approved to process hundreds of coronavirus tests a day.
- Read on to see exactly how a coronavirus test works.
- View more episodes of Business Insider Today on Facebook.
As US states struggle to administer tests for the coronavirus, private labs are spending millions to ramp up their testing capabilities.
One such lab, Northwell Health Labs in Lake Success, New York, is processing about 75 coronavirus tests a day after receiving federal approval late last week.
Executive director Dwayne Breining said Northwell has invested $2.5 millions to develop the testing. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the facility to expand its testing to hundreds a day. And Breining said further FDA approval would allow his team to process as many as 1,000 a day.
"We ultimately expect it to cost about the same as other molecular viral tests, which is somewhere in $150 range," he told Business Insider Today.