Hartford HealthCare, Quest Diagnostics Work With State to Increase COVID-19 Testing

Hartford HealthCare has plans to quadruple its COVID-19 testing capacity under a new partnership with the state of Connecticut and Quest Diagnostics.

The healthcare group aims to test 2,500 people a day. Currently, they are testing about 500 a day at their five drive-thru hospital locations. As of Tuesday, the state is averaging around 2,600 tests a day.

As part of the agreement, the state will relax regulations to make testing more readily available outside of only hospitals and specific healthcare settings. Hartford HealthCare said they intend to add mobile testing options.

Quest Diagnostics will pick up test specimens at the Hartford HealthCare locations to process.

Patients will be able to get a test with a referral from their doctor, or by contacting the 24/7 Hartford HealthCare Clinical Command Center at 860 -972-8100 or, toll-free, 833-621-0600. The current list of available locations is below.

Gov. Ned Lamont said the state aims to reach 1.5 million tests by mid-May.

"This venture between Quest Labs and Hartford HealthCare is just so important," he said, "in what it that means in our being able to ramp up testing capability and to see who is infected. . . . About 40 percent of the people who are infected don't even show symptoms. Right now, we're only able to test people who are showing symptoms," Lamont said.