HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - The staff at a Sunrise medical lab currently processing COVID-19 tests administered across South Florida are working around the clock to ensure results are ready as quickly as possible.
Gabriel Fonseca, the chief science officer at Testing Matters, Inc., gave 7News a tour on Tuesday and showed how a test sample is processed.
“This is the room where the COVID testing is performed,” she said.
Fonseca said hundreds of tests are processed on a daily basis.
“These are how the samples come in,” she said while showing a freezer filled with vials.
Once samples arrive, the team at Testing Matters ensures the tests were administered correctly in the field, and they enter all the data connected to each sample.
“Name, date of birth, phone number. In case it’s positive, we need to contact the patient. We need to give that information for the Department of Health,” said Fonseca.
The samples are then moved to a room next door.
“This is our incubator,” said Fonseca.
Inside the incubator, the samples are heated to 133 degrees Fahrenheit. That high heat inactivates COVID-19, so it’s not infectious, making the samples safer for lab technicians to handle.
Next, the samples are placed inside a machine.
“The instrument does an extraction process,” said Fonseca.
In a process that takes two and a half hours, the machine removes genetic material. It’s that genetic material that is then tested.
Once the genetic material is extracted, the samples are moved to a machine that measures 1 foot by 2 feet. It may look like a small box, but inside is sophisticated technology that can enlarge the COVID-19 virus so it is easily detected.
The machine then gives a positive or negative result for each sample.
“It is a long process, but as long as you have everything working on a scheduled time pace, you’re able to accomplish that process,” said Fonseca. “Right now we’re able to do 500 a day.”
But the lab is aiming to double that amount, so 1,000 samples can be processed daily.
Technicians said this is rewarding but emotionally draining work. Molecular technician Keirshea Smith said that about 20% of the samples that come in turn out to be positive for COVID-19.
“Right now, it’s heartbreaking to me. It’s heart-wrenching because I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, there’s more,'” she said, “and we’re supposed to be trying to lower the epidemic.”
The entire process, from the time a sample arrives to when a result is ready, takes about six hours.
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