as requested @IrfanDhalla some personal observations on achieving optimal COVID test TAT: balance demand for testing with lab capacity.
How to do this:
1) only test people who really need testing: symptomatic patients and contacts of known cases /1

2) coordinate collection centre volumes with paired laboratory& #39;s capacity
3) implement mutually agreed upon prioritization of samples eg. prioritize outbreak investigation samples
4) ongoing close dialogue between lab and collection site to ensure demand=supply/capacity /2

5) adjust demand or supply as nimbly as possible (demand is easier to adjust in most instances)
6) plan for surges together
ON has a testing capacity of ~50K, we should be working within these limits until lab capacity can grow again,
goal of 80% tests in <48H can be achieved/end