California officials release long-awaited report on troubled state testing labAfter investigating its own COVID-19 testing lab for much of the year, the California Department of Public Health closed its case without issuing sanctions as the state released a long-overdue report Monday that downplayed widespread issues identified during inspections at the Valencia Branch Laboratory. "It should not have taken 287 days for Californians to receive answers about this taxpayer-funded COVID testing lab," said Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita). The documents released Monday show the state issued a report to the lab in April highlighting major, widespread issues that state investigators said threatened the accuracy of tests conducted at the Valencia lab. When the lab lost or damaged a specimen, it blamed the situation on an "unsatisfactory sample," state investigators wrote in April. The Laboratory Field Services at the public health department operates independently, said Engel, the department's spokesman.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 23, 2021 03:48 UTC