Brunei sets up new lab to increase testing for Covid-19

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/ANN): The Brunei Government has collaborated with Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) to acquire an additional virology laboratory, known as the Brunei Covid-19 AirLab to increase the testing capacity of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus laboratory.

This was announced by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham Jaafar at the daily press conference on Wednesday (Aug 18)

“The lab is a portable mobile laboratory at Biosafety Level 2, which is currently placed at BRIDEX Hall in Jerudong and will start operations on Aug 19,” he said.

“This new laboratory, Insya Allah, will be able to accommodate up to 5,000 tests per day.”

Explaining further on the collaboration, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Mohd Amin Liew Abdullah said the Brunei government first learned of BGI in 2016 or 2017, during which the company was considering setting up operations in the sultanate.

“While negotiating their presence here in Brunei, to serve this region, Covid-19 occurred last year,” he said.

“In fact, they helped us a lot on a number of other things, including the first COVID-19 outbreak here, when we didn’t have any test-kits.

“Through that collaboration, our country was able to immediately secure many of these items. With the sudden surge in cases and a huge backlog of swab tests, the lab needed to be set up quickly.

“We were talking about increasing this capacity only a few days ago. But of course, through the collaboration of several other ministries, we were able to set it up, with chartered flights to bring in the equipment.”

He added, “Hopefully the new lab will be able to speed up all the swab tests and allow the Ministry of Health (MoH) to do more swabbing at a much faster rate, including swabs that were sent overseas for testing, to clear the backlog.

“Regarding some of the swabs which could not be tested immediately last week or so, we thank the people concerned for their patience.

“With this new lab being set up, once the backlog is cleared, we will be able to see more up-to-date numbers.”

Explaining further, he said, “The current numbers announced daily during the press conference for the past few days included back-logged results.

“Once they are able to announce overnight numbers, those will be the actual positive cases happening over the last 24 hours, which will give a better picture of how infectious Covid-19 is within the country, making it easier to manage.”

Dato Seri Setia Dr Mohd Isham said, “It is important to isolate, test and trace when an infection occurs. By carrying out the swab tests, the MoH will be able to catch up on the daily numbers, learn who is a true positive for the day, and quickly carry out the tracing and isolation of these individuals.”

He announced that the AirLab would be fully operational from today and that it might take a day or two to catch up with the backlogged swab tests.

“Today, we reported 94 new cases, but these cases were backlogged from a few days ago, and it’s not very reflective of how many positives we had within 24 hours,” he said.

“(The results) should take less than 24 hours or a maximum of 24 hours, rather than four to five days.”

Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Mohd Amin Liew said, “As it is a new lab, we are currently relying on some 40 external experts from China.

“More local people are also being included to learn and take over, as soon as the MoH – with the support of several ministries – has acquired staff to work in the lab, along with other supporting activities, as people are being reassigned to assist the MoH.”

Dato Seri Setia Dr Mohd Isham said, “We have hired 30 new scientific officers or medical lab officers to learn from them. At present, 30 people have been hired to go on duty.

“This number will be further increased in the near future, because we will have to operate the lab for 24 hours. If there are three shifts, then many will need to be employed.

“In terms of testing capacity, both labs at BRIDEX Hall and Sumbiling would easily be able to conduct around 8,000 to 10,000 swab tests daily.”

Asked whether BGI has the capability to conduct genetic sequencing to determine which Covid-19 strain is present in the country, he said, “The MoH previously sent samples to a neighbouring country, but it took some time, so we sent samples to BGI in Hong Kong around two weeks ago, as BGI is one of the labs that also conducts the sequencing for the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Insya Allah, in the near future, they will be able to help us do the sequencing faster.” - Borneo Bulletin/Asia News Network