Bắc giang
CDC Bac Giang – sleepless nights of health workers
Trying the best to race against time
SARS-CoV-2 testing is an important stage to early and accurately detect pathogens, greatly supporting the diagnosis and timely deployment of measures to prevent the epidemic and curb community transmissions.
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Technicians working at the SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic laboratory of the Bac Giang provincial Center for Disease Control. |
Bac Giang has a great advantage as the provincial Center for Disease Control has built a system of laboratories up to level-2 biosafety standards, with all qualified facilities, equipment and manpower. The unit has just received an automatic specimen extraction system from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for SARS-CoV-2 testing.
As a result, from February 21, 2020, the center has used the molecular biological technique (Realtime RT-PCR) to perform coronavirus diagnostic tests. Currently, the center has completed a dossier to seek the Ministry of Health’s permission for confirmation testing.
Amid the complicated development of the Covid-19, officials and workers in charge of testing always face a lot of pressure at work. Especially in recent times, the number of specimens has increased rapidly, with the peak of more than 100 specimens a day.
According to a report from the center, on the afternoon of March 25, the number of people quarantined in the province’s concentrated quarantine areas was 649. Earlier, 406 people completed the quarantine period without disease symptoms. Eighteen suspected cases are still being quarantined and monitored at medical facilities, waiting for test results.
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Performing specimen extraction in the SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing system at the Bac Giang provincial Center for Disease Control. |
Therefore, the laboratory technicians at the CDC Bac Giang have always tried their best to race against time to give the results the earliest and most accurate, promptly serving the treatment and care of patients as well as pandemic prevention and control.
Another great pressure for laboratory workers is that they have to work in a high-risk environment due to direct contact with suspected cases and specimens. Therefore, they must have solid experience and proficient manipulation, be fully equipped with personal protective equipment, as well as strictly abide by biosafety regulations.
Lights turned on all day and night
Since they performed the task of Covid-19 prevention and control, the Laboratory Department of the provincial Center for Disease Control has mobilized all human resources to work at their highest capacity to promptly meet the epidemic prevention and control requirements, while still ensuring the accomplishment of other professional tasks of the department.
The department is currently arranging a group of 14 workers for testing, working in three areas: specimen collection, extraction and machine operation, and analysis of results. Due to the limited human resources and the large workload, all members of the group must work continuously without shifting. By the end of March 25, the unit had collected 962 specimens and tested 636 of them.
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The sleepless nights of doctors and technicians at the Bac Giang provincial Center for Disease Control. |
The biggest difficulty at present is the lack of machinery and equipment. The automatic extraction system can only process 12 specimens in 2 hours. But with a large number of specimens now, in addition to increasing the staff directly involved in extracting the specimens, it is necessary to maximum their working capacity. Therefore, for many weeks, the Laboratory Department has always had lights turned on all day and night, while its machines and equipment has been running interruptedly.
Dang Thanh Minh, Director of the CDC Bac Giang, said: “It was really moved to witness the image of every day the husband quietly bringing foods to his wife, or medical workers hastily eating a box of noodles to keep up the work. They work very very hard in the laboratories regardless of day and night, without any complaints or requests. ”
On the evening of March 24, Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong and representatives of the provincial Military Command and Department of Health visited and encouraged laboratory workers, sharing the difficulties and hardships with them and praising their tireless efforts.
The Vice Chairman stressed that it is a very important task in the Covid-19 prevention and control. In the coming time, as the scope of testing will be expanded to quickly prevent the risk of outbreaks in the community, more attention should be paid to testing.
It can be said that in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, the laboratory staff of the provincial Center for Disease Control, though their work is quiet with a lot of pressures, difficulties and dangers, have contributed significantly to the cause of caring and protecting the people's health thanks to their enthusiasm and responsibility.
Viet Nga
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