St. PaulB次元官网网址檚 Hospital has acquired a new automated COVID-19 testing machine B次元官网网址� the first of its kind in Canada B次元官网网址� which carries the ability to test hundreds of swabs at once, and help lift the heavy load off virologists.

The machine, called the Roche cobas 6800 system, was purchased by the Vancouver-based hospital in late March after receiving approval from Health Canada. The machine is traditionally used for HIV, hepatitis B and cytomegalovirus viral load testing.

In order to confirm someone is carrying the novel coronavirus, health officials take a nasopharyngeal swab, which is then sent to a laboratory to be tested. In most instances, these tests are being looked at manually by virologists and lab staff.

But Dr. Marc Romney, the medical director of microbiology and virology department at St, PaulB次元官网网址檚, said with the help of the Roche 6800, dozens of swabs are able to be tested at once B次元官网网址� with the potential of testing 1,000 samples in a 24-hour period.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a high throughput instrument which can test 96 samples per run,B次元官网网址� Romney told Black Press Media. B次元官网网址淣inety-two can be patient samples, while the rest are done for quality assurance.B次元官网网址�

Currently, B.C. health officials have focused testing efforts on current clusters and outbreaks, specifically within care homes which house elderly people most at-risk of seeing adverse impacts if they contract the virus.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said that officials are regularly reviewing testing protocols and will adapt as necessary.

Still, roughly 56,142 tests have been conducted across B.C. as of April 11, according to data from the BC Centre for Disease Control. Romney said that translates to an all hands on deck approach in the lab.

B次元官网网址淰irology technologists are a rare breed in B.C. and Canada,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭he Roche can do an overnight run and allows us to test 24 hours [a day].B次元官网网址�

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To know if someone has COVID-19, multi-step tests are conducted to look for any of the virus within the RNA (ribonucleic acid) of the collected swab. RNA carries the genetic information of the virus.

A piece of this testing includes using what scientists call the polymerase chain reaction method, which involves rapidly making billions of copies of a specific DNA sample B次元官网网址� in this case the swab sample B次元官网网址� in order to amplify it to a large enough scale to study it in detail and detect the virus.

With the new machine, B次元官网网址渁 very complicated and relative manual process has been converted into something thatB次元官网网址檚 essentially fully automated,B次元官网网址� Romney said, adding that the Roche uses PCR technology which B次元官网网址渋ncorporates viral nucleic acid extraction, purification, amplification, and detection in a single instrument.B次元官网网址�

In addition to the Roche 6800, swabs are still being manually tested by virologists and other staff within the department who have stepped up to help during the pandemic.

B次元官网网址淭he goal is to do more testing, that is our focus,B次元官网网址� Romney said.

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ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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