User:Shawndouglas/sandbox/sublevel1

Like any other communicable disease, laboratories handling specimens that are suspected or confirmed of containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus must take appropriate precautions to protect all stakeholders. This involves not only any in-house protocols for preventing contamination but also any official guidance that goes beyond or supersedes in-house protocols. Examples of guidance documents include the World Health Organization's Laboratory biosafety guidance related to coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the CDC's Interim Laboratory Biosafety Guidelines for Handling and Processing Specimens Associated with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the CDC's Guidance for General Laboratory Safety Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Additionally, it may be helpful to look to what other laboratories are doing. In a brief article published in The Lancet Microbe, Choy highlights an International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Taskforce survey of biochemistry labs and how they've been mitigating biohazard risks associated with SARS-CoV-2. Actions include^[1]:

restricting laboratorian access to testing of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patient samples;
tightening of delivery and shipping procedures of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patient samples;
limiting add-on test requests for suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients;
increasing the frequency of disinfection; and
considering the expanded use of autoclaving before sample disposition.

Additional aspects of operations that laboratory managers may wish to implement include "number of shifts per day, the number of staff per shift, total number of staff accessible to work in the laboratory, shift change frequency, team-splitting arrangements, and fixed work–rest days."^[1] Arranging staff into smaller teams while reducing the consecutive number of shifts worked may reduce risks; however, managers of labs struggling to meet turnaround times may feel like this isn't realistically possible. In the end, the safety of personnel must be of highest importance, even while trying to rapidly and accurately conduct COVID-19 testing.^[1]

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Choy, K.W. (2020). "Changes in clinical laboratory operations and biosafety measures to mitigate biohazard risks during the COVID-19 pandemic". The Lancet Microbe 1 (7): E273-E274. doi:10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30168-3.