
Coronavirus – Zimbabwe: Enhancing capacity for laboratory diagnosis for COVID-19 at Beitbridge District Hospital
BEITBRIDGE, Zimbabwe -- When WHO, National Microbiology Reference Laboratory (NMRL) and Medsure Healthcare teams reached Beitbridge, 640km from Harare, twelve laboratory personnel from Beitbridge Hospital had already tested more than 6000 samples for COVID-19. The tests were done using a GeneXpert machine with cartridges for COVID-19 testing and Real Time- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, similar to the rapid testing kit used for HIV. GeneXpert machines are normally used to diagnose tuberculosis.
“The Abbott Platform tests 94 samples at a time. Together with our three GeneXpert machines which run four tests on each machine at once and the PCR, I am 100% confident we will be able to test more samples a day. We have already run 500 PCR tests before with our average daily testing at...