*Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic took the U.S. by storm. The Transplant Community had to navigate through unprecedented scenarios in order to continue the life-saving mission of donation. Testing for SARS-CoV-2 initially was not readily available to all OPOs. This abstract reviews the early data of STAT testing for a single OPO in Region 8.

*Methods: Retrospective data analysis was performed spanning a seven-month time period (July 2020-Jan 2021). SARS-CoV-2 testing was performed using Transcription Mediated Amplification on the Panther platform. 148 donors were evaluated.

*Results: We needed to factor the feasibility of adding an additional STAT test to the lab work assignments. When choosing an assay/instrumentation, outside of sensitivity and specificity, we took into consideration the ability to streamline testing in our lab operations. The results of 148 deceased donor SARS-CoV-2 results were retrospectively reviewed. TAT averaged 6.4 hours for testing; there was no negative impact to the standard infectious disease panel TAT. TAT was efficient for two reasons (i) Lab Management assessed staffing needs and made adjustments to accommodate the additional STAT test (ii) the Panther allows for random access for STAT sample loading/testing. AST recommendations are that donors should be screened epidemiologically and a clinical history for suspected infection should be performed. The prevalence for asymptomatic disease is high. Our SARS-CoV-2 reactive rate for deceased donors averaged 5.8%. We observed trends in the reactive rates which mirrored the restrictions and relaxed restrictions that were imposed by the State. The rates increased during the holiday season when COVID-19 was prevalent in our DSA.

*Conclusions: While the risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 through organ transplantation is not known, this data demonstrates the importance of continued screening for donors to prevent the potential for donor-derived recipient infection. With proper laboratory planning and choosing an assay/platform that can be streamlined into operations, STAT testing options for new diseases is achievable without majorly delaying organ allocation practices.

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