Changzhou's first biosafety level 2 plus mobile nucleic acid testing laboratory was officially launched in Changzhou Third People’s Hospital on Wednesday.

The lab, having 18 staff members in three 8-hour shifts to provide 24/7 coverage, has a daily testing capacity of 4,000 to 5,000 sampling tubes. It can deliver results much quicker than conventional testing that involves transporting samples to a lab in the city.

“It is a mobile, automated, high-throughput nucleic acid testing laboratory that can meet the needs of large quantity testing,� said Zheng Guojun, deputy director of the hospital’s laboratory.

“The lab meets the requirements for mobile enhanced biosafety level 2 laboratories and contains three separate areas for reagent preparation, specimen processing, and testing,� he added.

At the same time, the lab contains a decontamination room and equipment room with devices such as the Type A2 biosafety cabinet, automatic nucleic acid extractor, PCR quantitative analyzer, and autoclave sterilizer.

The laboratory's testing capacity will meet the demand of 50,000 people a day in any large-scale screening using 10-in-1 mixed virus sampling kits.