LSUHSC Doc Says ‘All Hands on Deck’ in Fighting Coronavirus [VIDEO]

Dr. Chris Kevil, Vice Chancellor for Research at Shreveport's LSU Health Science center, talks with 101.7 / 710 KEEL's Robert J Wright and Erin McCarty about the local medical school's expanding role in fighting the spread of the Coronavirus, COVID 19.

Kevil tells KEEL listeners "that this virus and the emergency that it has brought...all hands on deck. so we can deal with this exclusively."

Kevil also talks at length about the school's EVT (Emerging Viral Threat) Laboratory, "with a goal of being able to help out in testing as many as many people, not only in the community, but nationwide."

"Testing," he adds, "Is absolutely essential in being able to understand who has been "accepted" by the virus so that we can give them the care that they need or...quarantine themselves."

Kevil, in reference to the EVT lab also says, "We're ramping up to get to get to a from about 1,00 to a peak of 2,000 tests a day. Right now we're in the process of working out...a system (between) the clinical laboratory, the hospital and the community so that we can provide the turnaround time of the test of 48 hours, working to get it down to 24."