St. Paul’s high-volume COVID-19 testing system a first in Canada

The virology lab at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver has started using a new automated testing system that could process thousands of COVID-19 samples in a day.

“High-volume testing capacity is critical in our fight to contain and control the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Marc Romney in a statement.

St. Paul’s was recently approved by Health Canada to start testing for the new coronavirus using a system traditionally used for HIV, hepatitis B, and cytomegalovirus viral load testing, which measures the number of virus particles in human blood. The hospital has two machines – called the Roche 6800 – that could run more than 2,000 tests within 24 hours.

But it’s not there yet. Testing kits for these machines are in short supply and the lab hopes the newly approved system will allow it to complete a more modest 600 tests per day for now.

The lab is also running about 400 COVID-19 tests a day under a different system.

If it wasn’t for the short supply of Roche 6800 kits, said Romney, “this new testing platform should allow us to increase significantly our testing capacity, possibly increasing testing capacity four- to five-fold.”

Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul’s Hospital, made headlines last week when it partnered with Vancouver Coastal Health to offer Vancouver’s first drive-thru coronavirus testing clinic.

The clinic is located on West 33rd Avenue between Honoria Conway and the Archdiocese of Vancouver offices and is open to health care workers only.

More on how the coronavirus is affecting Providence Health Care’s services here. St. Paul’s Foundation is also asking for donations to its COVID-19 Response Fund.