(WTAJ) — Scientists and researchers in Pennsylvania have found their own way of testing people. UPMC announced their development of a test that can detect the virus that causes COVID-19. On Tuesday, a specimen collection site opened in Pittsburgh for patients with symptoms consistent with Coronavirus.

UPMC plans to use this test to diagnose select, symptomatic cases. After this site in Pittsburgh is up and running, more facilities will be opened across the state including one in Altoona.

Specimen collection is already available at all UPMC Hospitals. Samples are sent on an as-needed basis to state or local public health authorities for testing, a process that can takes several days for results. With this new test, patients can get results usually in less than a day.

“We can alleviate some of the burden on our public health partners, and we can also ease the concern of some of our patients by getting them the diagnosis in hours, not days,” Dr. Donald Yearly, Chair of Emergency Medicine at UPMC, said.

To visit the collection site, patients must have a referral from their primary care physician and a screening from an infection prevention specialist. They also must make an appointment for the swab test.

“It’s a thin wire, cotton tip device that is inserted into your nose. It’s a medical procedure,” Dr. Yearly said.

UPMC doctors said the nose is the first target for the virus and that’s why they take the sample from there.

“It collects both the mucus secretions and some cells from the airway, and that’s where the virus is,” Dr. John Williams, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, said.

Doctors said they’re continuing to talk with other health care professionals in places with COVID-19 outbreaks trying to learn what they’re doing to for their patients and staff.

“They’re circulating from Seattle, from Italy, from China, what they’ve gone through with testing, socially, in clinical care, in hospitals,” Dr. Alan Wells, Medical Director at UPMC Clinical Laboratories, said.

There’s no word yet on when the specimen collection site will be up and running in Altoona. There’s also talks of drive-thru testing becoming available at different UPMC facilities. We were not told when or where that could be happening.