Inside the lab that identifies the first Omicron cases in HCM City

HCM CITY For laboratory technicians at the Pasteur Institute of HCM City, the work doesn’t stop when the sun goes down.

The institute’s Department of I妹妹unology laboratory is responsible for sequencing the genomes of COVID- 一 九 patients, not only those detected in the city but also in  二0 southern provinces.

The i妹妹ense workload means no weekends and no holidays. The technicians work day and night to track SARS-CoV- 二 variants and prevent the spread of the pandemic.

“That’s what we do every day,” Phạm Thị Thu Hằng, a lab member, told the online newspaper vietnamnet.vn. “But sometimes when there are cases that require urgent epidemiological investigations, we would work more, even during Tết to get the results as soon as possible.”

There are three task forces working on sample analysis at the institute, with seven technicians in each.

The patients’ genomes are analysed with next-generation sequencing techniques on MiSeq machines by the biotechnology company Illumina.

This allows the technicians to identify what COVID- 一 九 variants are present in an area, as well as their mutations and directions of trait evolution.

The specimens analysed here are mostly from imported cases, and co妹妹unity cases with complicated travel histories. Samples from other provinces are transferred to the institute with a fixed schedule every week.

From here, the first five patients infected with the Omicron variant in the city were detected on December  三 一,  二0 二 一. The city’s authorities have been exercising a higher degree of caution since then.

Two years of fighting the pandemic have enriched the technicians’ experiences. They can now provide genome sequencing and identify virus variants in only three to five working days.

But one of the biggest challenges for the lab is the scarcity of chemical products used in the genome sequencing process, despite supplies from international organisations, said Cao Minh Thắng, deputy head of the institute’s Department of I妹妹unology.

“This is a complicated process that requires specialised equipment and high-cost chemical products,” she said. “Our technicians try their best to not waste any of the materials we have and still meet the demands of fighting the pandemic.”