The launch of the molecular biology laboratory in Isla de la Juventud is expected for April, said Velázquez Batista, director of the Public Health Sector, exclusively to the Cuban News Agency Israel. He pointed out that a brigade of non-state builders is currently working on the change of use of a premises of the Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology Center (CHEM), containing four departments: reception of samples, extraction, PCR and autoclave, whose civil works are at 80 percent execution.
The doctor explained that the provision of equipment for the on-site analysis of the tests - Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) - will save time waiting for the results and resources for air transportation of the samples to the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK). Precisely at the IPK, laboratory technicians and microbiology graduates -among them Dayana Agramonte Rivero- received training in the processing of samples and biosafety protocols, in order to detect positive cases to SARS-CoV-2, causing the disease.
I feel better prepared from the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired, although virology in general was discussed, it was particularized in SARS-CoV-2, biosafety protocols were also alluded to to avoid contagion, said Agramonte Rivero, engaged in the reception and numbering of samples destined for the national reference laboratory.
She commented that when the laboratory is inaugurated the work will be intense, but the waiting time of the patients for the results will no longer be 48 to 72 hours and the new coronavirus will also be better controlled.
The director of the Public Health Sector stressed that with the operation of the new diagnostic system, it is possible to detect positive cases of the virus causing the pandemic in 12 hours.
This project also prioritizes the hazardous waste evacuation system, for which a reinforced concrete septic tank adjusted to biosafety requirements was completed that will respond to the needs of the new work and the chemical laboratory, where other pathologies are processed, he added.
Velázquez Batista. He said that the work, of national interest - with the capacity to process some 450 samples in half a day - will be added to the network of laboratories in the country and will be the second of its kind in the special municipality, the first was built in Cayo Largo of the South, in order to carry out epidemiological surveillance of foreign travelers who arrive at that pole.
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