The thing is, you're already dealing with a patient that might be infected and medical testing labs already process potentially infectious samples on a daily basis.

The CDC has actually issued official guidance regarding Coronavirus biosafety. [1] Other than discouraging unnecessary culturing of the virus, BSL-2 (a fairly common setup) is the main recommendation.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/biosafety-faqs...