Karl-Anthony Towns donates $100,000 to help with coronavirus test development

Former Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns is donating $100,000 to help with coronavirus test development.

This evening, the former Wildcat and current Minnesota Timberwolves star announced he would be making the $100,000 donation to the Mayo Clinic out of Rochester, MN, an academic medical center currently developing a test for COVID-19.

“Mayo Clinic has begun rolling out a test to detect the virus that causes COVID-19,” Towns said on his Twitter. “My hope is that we can fight this virus quicker and more efficiently by increasing the testing capabilities and availability and Mayo Clinic’s overall COVID-19 response. This is why I will be donating $100K to support these efforts. Thank you to the Mayo Clinic workers and all healthcare workers who are working around the clock to treat us. You are our heroes.

“We’re all in this together, let’s protect ourselves and the community around us.”

According to a release by the clinic, this donation will help increase testing capacity from 200 per day to over 1,000 tests per day in the coming weeks.

“Our team has been working around the clock for the past month to develop a test for COVID-19,” says Dr. William Morice II, chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic. “We are blown away by Karl’s gesture to help us fast-track offering testing to more patients across Minnesota and the nation.”