LifeLabs reports surpassing 800,000 COVID-19 molecular tests

Toronto, Nov. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LifeLabs is pleased to report results of over 800,000 COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests for Canadians and their health care providers.

"I am so proud of our employees for all they've done to reach this remarkable milestone," said Charles Brown, President and CEO of LifeLabs. "COVID-19 has presented challenges we had never seen before, and our amazing teams stepped up to work around-the-clock to ensure our operations is able to support daily COVID-19 lab tests for Canadians, their health care providers, and the health authorities in monitoring, understanding, and managing this virus."

Throughout the pandemic, LifeLabs has worked closely with government partners and health authorities to continue building capacity for increasing the volume of testing. Since LifeLabs received the Ministry of Health's direction to commence Sars-CoV-2 testing in March, operations quickly ramped up to go-live with testing in a single week and reduced a backlog of tests within the first couple weeks after scaling up operations.

"Most, if not all of our lab employees are working extended hours to support the constant increase for COVID-19 molecular diagnostic testing," said Haleh Bahrami, VP of Lab Operations. "From our specimen management employees, to our diagnostic lab teams, our frontline employees, mobile lab staff, health and safety team members, couriers, and more, I'm so grateful for everyone who has done so well to come together and work as one team to meet these extraordinary testing demands."

Throughout the pandemic, LifeLabs has also supported Canada's response to this urgent public health care need by:

? Launching LifeLabs' WorkCleartm program, an end-to-end solution that helps employers reduce the risk of workplace transmission of the Coronavirus by identifying asymptomatic and symptomatic carriers.
? Serving as the medical laboratory partner for the NHL's Return to Play Plan, as part of the WorkClear program, to ensure all players and members of the hockey community stayed safe in the NHL bubble. 
? Recently launching a COVID-19 Antibody Test, helping customers and their health care providers assess and determine prior COVID-19 infection.

For more information about LifeLabs' response to COVID-19 and testing, visit lifelabs.com.

About LifeLabs

LifeLabs is Canada's leading provider of laboratory diagnostic information and digital health connectivity systems, enabling patients and health care practitioners to diagnose, treat, monitor, and prevent disease. We support 20 million patient visits annually and conduct over 100 million laboratory tests through leading-edge technologies and our 5,700 talented and dedicated employees. We are a committed innovator in supporting Canadians to live healthier lives, operating Canada's first commercial genetics lab and the country's largest online patient portal, with more than 4.1 million Canadians receiving their results online. LifeLabs is 100% Canadian owned by OMERS Infrastructure, the infrastructure investment manager of one of Canada's largest defined benefit pension plans. Learn more at lifelabs.com.