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Coronavirus test workers 'making personal sacrifices'
May 28, 2020
The scientist running Wales' largest coronavirus testing laboratory has spoken of the "sacrifice" his team is making to tackle the pandemic.
Jonathan Evans runs the virology centre at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales which conducted its first positive Covid-19 test in February.
He said staff were working long hours, carrying out about 2,500 daily tests.
A lead nurse at one drive-through test centre said "good morale" was protecting staff from the pressure.
Swabs taken at drive-through testing centres, care homes and health board test sites are all taken to the Cardiff laboratory to be processed.
Initially, it was the only laboratory in Wales conducting tests for coronavirus, but others are now sharing the workload.
Before the pandemic hit, Mr Evans' laboratory was at its busiest when processing tests for sexually transmitted diseases.
Image caption A nurse conducts a test at the drive through test centre at Rodney Parade in Newport
Back then, a "normal day" would involve carrying out 400 chlamydia tests.
"During swine flu we would get up to testing around 200 samples a day, but that was only on a couple of days," he said.
"We are now up at over 2,500 tests per day on a test [for COVID19] that only existed in January, on a virus that didn't exist before December.
"And so the amount of procedures and systems we have had to develop and put in place to be able to safely offer that service has been nothing short of phenomenal."
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