Though the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory has enough resources to continue testing at current levels, its capacity remains well below the level needed to conduct widespread disease surveillance to keep the spread of the novel coronavirus under control as governments begin easing restrictions on citizens, lab director Dr. Mark Pandori said Wednesday on a call with reporters.

However, Pandori said that the lab is planning to bring additional equipment online in mid-May that could allow the lab to quadruple its current ability to test. He said that if other labs are similarly able to expand their testing capacity, they might be able to begin the kind of surveillance testing necessary to better monitor the spread of COVID-19 through the population.

“If we were to quadruple our throughput here at this lab and several other labs then we would be approaching a moment when we could start to screen well beyond just contacts of known cases and symptomatic people,” Pandori said.

Washoe County District Health Officer Kevin Dick said that additional financial resources to hire epidemiologists and case contact staff will be needed as widespread surveillance testing ramps up in order to ensure that local health officials are able to track down all of the close contacts of symptomatic individuals.

Dick also noted that Washoe County has received four Abbott ID Now units capable of running rapid COVID-19 tests. He said that health district officials are working to identify where to deploy those four units and increase the supply of cartridges needed to run the test, since the machines only came with a limited supply of cartridges.

The state lab will also soon be able to conduct what are known as antibody, or serology, tests to identify people who may have previously contracted COVID-19 but are no longer sick. Pandori said that companies have indicated that they plan to ship antibody tests next week, and that the state lab hopes to be able to run about 100 tests per week for the first few weeks.

He noted that the antibody tests the state lab plans to run will require a blood draw sample taken by a clinician and are different from the point-of-care rapid tests that could be run outside of a doctor’s office or a lab off of a finger prick of blood. It is unclear at this point who might be offering the latter kind of point-of-care antibody tests, though Pandori said it could be outreach centers where patients gather or emergency rooms.

Dick said that the epidemiological curve in Nevada appears to be continuing to be flattening and the “worst case scenarios” appear to have been reduced over time as Nevadans continue to stay home and engage in social distancing. However, he noted that the models and projections aren’t definitive and that there is no guarantee that reality will reflect them.

“We’re cautiously optimistic right now, and I think the week ahead of us will be important to watch and see where our numbers go,” Dick said.