Local biotech helps Beth Israel’s little lab ramp up COVID-19 testing

In any given year, the small two-person laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center processes about 1,500 flu tests total. Thanks to some good luck and a partnership with a Watertown biotech, the facility is now ready to test that many people for COVID-19 per day. The hospital’s lab has been aided during the outbreak by a collaboration with a small startup in one of the first such partnerships between a nonprofit health organization and a private-sector company.