Coronavirus testing labs again lack key supplies

A shortage of pipette tips and other lab supplies is leading to a backlog of COVID-19 testing nationwide. A recent report by the Association of Public Health Laboratories found that more than 20% of 72 institutions it surveyed said they will run out of at least one item required to do their tests within a week. Switzerland-based Tecan, a supplier of pipette tips, says it has been inundated with orders from U.S. customers in recent months. Martin Brändle, the firm’s senior vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, says the demand has been so high that Tecan is tapping its emergency supplies, and it plans to launch new production lines in an effort to double the company’s output by fall. Stocks of machines, containers, and chemicals for extracting or amplifying the coronavirus’s genetic material are also in short supply, impeding nearly every point on the testing workflow.