Experience at Department of Laboratory Medicine during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Daegu

Sunggyun Park1   Do-Hoon Kim1   Won-Mok Lee1   Jung-Sook Ha1   Dong-Seok Jeon1   Jae-Hee Lee2   Namhee Ryoo1*   

1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine,
2 Daegu Dongsan Hospital, Daegu,

Abstract

The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Korea was reported in January 2020. As the secondary transmissions accelerated within the country, the government revised the outbreak alert for COVID-19 from attention to caution. Mid-February, when a massive outbreak was reported from a church in Daegu, our institution initiated testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). More than 300 laboratory tests were performed within the first 2 months, before the number of cases began to decline. Here, we describe our experience of 4 months at the department of Laboratory Medicine, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, located in Daegu, where a massive COVID-19 outbreak occurred.

Keywords

COVID-19,    Daegu,    Laboratory medicine,    PCR,    SARS-CoV-2   


Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Distribution of "Indeterminate" results according to three specific genes, separately or in combination.Abbreviations: R, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene; E, envelope gene; N, nucleocapsid gene.


Figures & Tables

Table 1. Criteria for the interpretation of SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests in the confirmed patients

Ct values for:Interpretation (1st Ed)Interpretation (5th Ed)
ERdRpNIC
<40<40<40<40PositivePositive
<40<40<40≥40PositivePositive
≥40≥40≥40<40NegativeNegative
≥40<40<40≥40Repeat (Seegene)Repeat after reextraction (Seegene)
<40≥40<40
<40<40 ≥40
≥40≥40<40
≥40<40≥40
<40≥40≥40
≥40≥40≥40
≥40<40<40<40IndeterminateIndeterminate
<40≥40<40
<40<40≥40
≥40≥40<40
≥40<40≥40
<40≥40≥40