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'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