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Colombo East Hospital gears up for large-scale RT-PCR testing with ADB help
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The state-of-the-art RT-PCR laboratory at the hospital
The test-runs are on and next week the Colombo East Base Hospital, Mulleriyawa, will have the capacity to conduct 500 RT-PCR tests per day.
Currently, the hospital has 1 RT-PCR machine capable of carrying out 500 baseline tests per day but is hoping to scale-up later with a few more machines, increasing the capacity to 3,000 tests a day when required, Director Dr. Priyantha Karunarathna told the Sunday Times.
The tests would be of samples from patients in the hospital and those sent from the airport.
Usually, medical laboratory technicians have to manually extract the RNA from the samples provided and it takes hours, but the RT-PCR machine the hospital has includes an automated extractor which can do so for 192 samples simultaneously in 1½ hours, it is understood.
The 285-bed Colombo East Base Hospital was sent its first COVID-19 patient on March 23 and as of Thursday it had seven patients. “We have allocated 30 beds for COVID-19 patients in a demarcated area and opened up the hospital for our usual patients including maternity, surgical and paediatrics this week,” Dr. Karunarathna added.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has funded the construction and equipment of this new laboratory, Sri Lanka’s largest, which will increase the country’s testing capacity by 30%, an ADB press release said.
The building, constructed within the hospital premises, is equipped with PCR machines, consumables, pharmacological refrigerators and freezers, a generator, reagents and dedicated utilities such as water supply, electricity and telecommunication. Other operational support such as training, a laboratory information system, technical assistance on trouble shooting and a waste disposal system have also been provided.
The funds for this facility were from the ADB’s $15 million repurposed funds for the Sri Lanka Health System Enhancement Project, which was reallocated in late February to finance preventive and response efforts against COVID-19.
Supercomputer Fugaku
The world’s fastest supercomputer, ‘Fugaku’ is being deployed in the fight against the coronavirus.
Japan’s room-size Fugaku supercomputer which is in Kobe claimed the top spot on Monday, carrying out 2.8 times more calculations per second than an IBM machine in America. It was developed by Japanese technology firm Fujitsu and the government-backed Riken Institute.
Fugaku is currently simulating how droplets would spread in office spaces which have partitions or in packed trains with the windows open; while running diagnostics and monitoring the effectiveness of Japan’s new contact-tracing app.
When fully operational next year, experts are hoping the machine would be able to help narrow the search for effective treatments for the virus.