A look inside one P.E.I. microbiology lab where they're testing for COVID-19

In the microbiology lab at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, a team of about a dozen work to process COVID-19 tests.

The lab, like the one at the Prince County Hospital, is a major part of P.E.I.'s response to the pandemic, especially as restrictions ease. Between the two labs, Health PEI is processing about 100 tests a day. 

The team works around the clock. This has been their reality every day for the last several weeks.

"I'm exhausted," laughed Kari-Lyn Rutley, a molecular technologist at the lab.

"It's nerve-racking sometimes, but it actually makes me feel more at ease knowing what's going on behind the testing."

Rapid testing

When shipments of sample tubes first arrive from Charlottetown's cough and fever clinics, or from the hospital itself, the outside of the tubes are sanitized, labelled and then ready for testing.

There are two testing machines used to confirm COVID-19 at the lab. One is the GeneXpert testing unit, which can process tests in about 45 minutes but is limited to about four tests at a time.

The machine is dedicated to processing samples of workers and residents at long-term care homes and anyone else who needs a quick result, as directed by the Chief Public Health Office.

The other machine is called a BD MAX, which takes about three hours to process but can test up to 80 samples at a time.

If a test is positive, it will show up on a computerized graph that begins as a flat line and transforms into a smooth, upward curve.

P.E.I. has only had 27 positive cases of COVID-19, all considered recovered.

Positive tests 'exciting in some ways'

Dr. Greg German, medical microbiologist and infectious diseases consultant with Health PEI, describes the feeling of discovering a positive test in a way you might not suspect.

"It is actually exciting in some ways," German said, but after the initial excitement, he needs to make sure the test is truly positive.

If a test is positive, the team immediately notifies Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison.

"That's the first thing we have to work through, and the second thing is I want to know how did it happen."

Part of the testing process is finding out how exactly someone got COVID-19 and what it could mean for the rest of P.E.I.

"In some ways I feel like I have a 158,000 [hospital] beds that we're trying to take care of from this COVID crisis situation," German said.

Once the tests are processed, they're not thrown away. The samples are stored at –80 C indefinitely in a freezer at the lab, in case they need to be retested at some point.

'No better job'

For the team, it's unclear when it will no longer be focusing on COVID-19 testing. A big part of what they're doing is planning for the future to make sure the lab has the capacity to do the testing Morrison feels it should be able to do.

Right now, Health PEI is able to process up to 2,000 tests a week. For German, the work is tiring, but rewarding.

"I honestly think ... there's no better job than what I'm doing right now and being able to help out with this crisis and this pandemic," he said.

"It's really been a team effort, and yes it's tiring but we'll get through it."

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