Governor Roy Cooper and state health officials announced the creation of a new collaboration between the government, universities and private professionals to try and increase testing for COVID-19.

The announcement on Friday shared the creation of the Testing Surge Workgroup, which consists of officials from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and an additional ten researchers and professionals from across the state. Dr. Melissa Miller of UNC Health Care and the UNC School of Medicine, as well as Dr. Michael Datto of the Duke University Health System Clinical Laboratories are among the group.

Cooper described the partnership as an important step toward the state easing its restrictions on residents, saying the research and widespread testing might yield a solution to further addressing the ongoing pandemic.

“North Carolina now has 13 labs — public, private and hospital — that have performed at least 73,000 diagnostic tests,” said the governor. “But we need more. We are doing our part and we have set up a testing surge work group. They’re going to be important in this process.”

Cooper and health officials laid out a potential path to a “new normal” in the state earlier in the week, which would be dependent on improved testing, tracing and trends of positive COVID-19 cases. He said while the plan would mean lessened restrictions on the stay at home order and his executive orders for some businesses to close amid the pandemic, ending the restrictions before hitting certain benchmarks would be very damaging to public health.

Cooper also spoke with President Donald Trump on Thursday with other state governors and spoke about the conversation on Friday. He said Trump shared his own guidelines to eventually end the stay at home orders, but more action is needed from the federal government to aid states’ efforts, specifically when it comes to personal protective equipment.

On Friday, the state reported nearly 6,000 active positive cases of the coronavirus, with 152 deaths from causes related to COVID-19.

To learn more about the Testing Surge Workgroup, visit the state’s Department of Health and Human Services website.

Photo via NC Department of Public Safety.

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