On the afternoon of March 16th, a press conference was held on COVID-19 prevention and control to introduce the latest situation of COVID-19 in Shanghai. Ping Liu, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, attended the press conference and explained in response to a reporter's question that recently, according to the deployment requirements of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Shanghai Municipal Government, the Commission actively mobilized all forces to make every effort to improve the capacity of PCR tests. At present, the inventory of PCR reagents in Shanghai has reached 13 million people-units, with a daily output of nearly 4 million people-units and a maximum daily output of 8.85 million people-units. PCR reagents are sufficient to meet the demand of current test laboratories.
First, make every effort to build incremental test capacity. Coordinate with testing equipment suppliers to supply testing equipment to laboratories in Shanghai, coordinate enterprises with up-to-standard testing capabilities to be approved to carry out testing services, and coordinate existing mobile testing vehicles to issue temporary driving license plates. Through the joint efforts of all parties, up to now, the accumulated PCR test capacity has increased by 200,000 tubes per day on the original size. Based on 1-10 mixation, it is equivalent to the capacity of additional 2 million people-units in Shanghai. It is estimated that 125,000 tubes will be added tomorrow. In the future, the capacity will continue to increase, and the target of adding 450,000 tubes, that is, adding up to 4.5 million people-units, will be achieved cumulatively.
Second, fully tap the potential of test capacity. By coordinating universities, research institutes, biomedical enterprises and other relevant units to allocate more than 260 employees with PCR test qualifications, an "industrial coalition" was formed, and nearly 300 test operators were urgently trained by Shanghai Municipal Clinical Testing Center. More than 200 people with experience in PCR test operation and meeting the qualification conditions in Shanghai rushed to the front line to jointly ensure 7/24 uninterrupted operation of laboratories in Shanghai and release the capacity potential.
And third, strengthen the scheduling of sampling and testing. According to Shanghai’s unified deployment, we will do our best to link up and dispatch sampling, transportation, testing and reporting, and speed up the process from sampling to reporting.
Thanks to all institutions, enterprises and testing staff for their hard work! We believe that under the scientific and orderly organization and scheduling, and with the cooperation of all parties, Shanghai can provide sufficient capacity of PCR tests to meet the needs and offer a solid guarantee for COVID-19 prevention and control.
