Chonnam National University Hospital Operates Dedicated Team for Gene Amplification PCR Testing

COVID-19 Virus Test Reduced to '6 Hours'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam National University Hospital announced on the 25th that it has formed and is operating a dedicated “Gene Amplification PCR Testing Team” to determine infection status faster and more accurately amid the spread of COVID-19.

The Department of Laboratory Medicine at Jeonnam National University Hospital recently formed a dedicated testing team of five clinical pathologists on the 23rd due to a rapid increase in COVID-19 confirmed cases and an expansion of the testing target range, which caused a sharp rise in the number of test requests at the hospital’s screening clinic.

As a result, PCR tests, which had inevitably been delayed due to being conducted alongside tests for other diseases besides COVID-19, can now focus solely on COVID-19 testing.

Since being selected by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency as a hospital capable of performing COVID-19 PCR tests, Jeonnam National University Hospital’s diagnostic testing team, which had been conducting tests 2 to 3 times a day, can now increase the number of tests to an average of 4 times per day.

This is nearly double the testing volume compared to large domestic hospitals, which generally conduct about 1 to 2 tests per day on average.

Meanwhile, PCR testing involves collecting specimens from symptomatic individuals, culturing them, applying diagnostic reagents that react only to the COVID-19 gene, placing them in amplification equipment, and determining the presence or absence of the virus.

In particular, since it now takes only 6 hours from specimen collection to results, this method is a revolutionary testing technique compared to the previous “pan-coronavirus testing method,” which took a full day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.