Not exactly a breakthrough as testing take 3-5 hours in other countries... and in the US. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/were-behind-curve-us-hospital

Not exactly a breakthrough as testing take 3-5 hours in other countries... and in the US. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/were-behind-curve-us-hospitals-confront-challenges-large-scale-coronavirus-testing https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/were-behind-curve-us... Q: What's the turnaround time when you have a sample on hand? How long does it take to extract RNA from the sample, put it into a polymerase chain reaction machine, etc.? A: About 2 to 3 hours to do the testing, but because the process requires us to batch samples, you can't really just test the sample as they come in. In order to conserve reagents and labor, you' wait until you have a certain bolus of samples and then test them together. So you do testing once or twice a day.