Medical labs from across China helping Shanghai battle outbreak

Medical institutes from other regions of the country have joined the nucleic acid testing teams in Shanghai to help the city battle COVID-19 amid its worst pandemic outbreak in about two years.

Since the metropolis was hit by the outbreak last month, it has expanded the coverage of nucleic acid tests to track and curb the spread of the virus as well as to prevent mass infection.

Given that a mass testing of the city's 25 million residents to find out new infections is a big job, some medical institutes from across the country have joined the city in testing samples.

When China Daily arrived at a sports center in the metropolis' Pudong New Area on Friday afternoon, nine large white containers were present outside the venue, in which several staff members were testing samples.

The containers are laboratories, and the workers were dispatched from branches of the Nucleus Huaxi Medical Laboratory to help the city alleviate the burden of testing nucleic acid samples.

Pei Xu, manager of the laboratory's branch in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, said a total of 217 members, who have been divided into three shifts to ensure a 24-hour duty, can test more than 100,000 tubes of samples every day.

"Our aim is to assist Shanghai in improving the efficiency of testing samples in its fight against the pandemic, as well as to provide test reports as soon as possible," he added.

Dian Diagnostics, another medical institute, has also set up its laboratories in a sports center in the Pudong New Area.

People's Daily reported that the institute's employees receive samples at 7 am every day, and to ensure the result accuracy, they are required to conduct at least three reviews before issuing final reports.