COVID-19 Local Laboratory Solution

Introduction

BGI Offers Partners a Complete Laboratory Solution for the Fight Against COVID-19

BGI is providing its ‘Huo-Yan’ laboratory solution, which allows implementation of rapid detection and diagnosis of patients suspected with COVID-19, as a complete package to partners across the world.

Background

As of March 3, 2020, there are a total of 90,893 reported cases of COVID-19 globally, and 3,110 deaths, according to the WHO. In the past 24 hours, China reported 129 cases, the lowest number of cases for China since the 20th of January. Outside China, 1,848 cases were reported in 48 countries. 12 countries reported cases for the first time, and there are 21 countries with one case currently. (WHO-Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 43).

Facing the spread of COVID-19 in a growing number of countries across the world, it is critical that high throughput detection labs are built up in order to increase the efficiency of diagnosis.

BGI has been actively engaged in the fight against the COVID-19. On January 14, BGI successfully developed a Real-Time Fluorescent RT-PCR kit for detecting 2019-nCoV (SARS-CoV-2), which can issue results in 3 hours. The kit was certified by National Medical Products Administration and received CE-IVD marking. The kit is already widely used in China, providing a scientific basis for diagnosis of suspected cases and the discharge of recovered patients.

Development of the Huo-Yan Laboratory:

On February 5 the Huo-Yan Laboratory, an emergency test laboratory run by BGI and designed to handle 10,000 samples daily to detect 2019-nCoV, started trial operation in Wuhan. The Wuhan Laboratory has been promptly followed by newly built or upgraded Huo-Yan labs in Shenzhen, Tianjin, Beijing, and Shanghai, in a total of 12 cities across the country. The daily throughput totals up to 50,000 tests per day, further upgradable to 80,000 per day when necessary.

As of March 4, the Huo-Yan laboratories have completed a total of 360,000 test samples across China, enabling a rapid response to the outbreak including diagnosis of suspected cases, identification of suspected cases, release of recovered patients, and screening of close contacts and high-risk groups.