China's first ISO-containerized biosafety level 2 plus mobile nucleic acid testing laboratory was officially delivered at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Friday. Photo: CFP

China's first ISO-containerized biosafety level 2 plus mobile nucleic acid testing laboratory was officially delivered at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Friday. It can save two hours as samples will not need to be sent to labs downtown, according to the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai on Friday.

The lab, which is less than 30 square meters, can support on-demand inspection at the airport, with a daily capacity of 200 tests at least, and 80 percent of the testing equipment is produced domestically. It contains three separate rooms for reagent preparation, specimen processing and testing, according to a file sent to the Global Times by Shanghai's science and technology commission on Friday.

It also meets the requirements for mobile enhanced biosafety level 2 laboratories as released by the General Administration of Customs of China.

Currently, China's COVID-19 nucleic acid testing capacity can fully meet the domestic demand and the most rapid testing products can give results within 30 minutes. The advantage of the lab is that it can be "adaptable for changing circumstances," Xu Jinyong, who is responsible for this lab project, and general manager of Shanghai Baoshan Pacific Container Co, told the Global Times on Friday. 

"The lab can accept a batch of samples at one time and will deliver the results every 6 minutes after 1.5 hours," Xu said.

For instance, many ports of entry around the nation, such as Southwest China's Yunnan Province, have to send the nucleic acid testing samples to hospitals downtown which are far away from the ports, Xu noted, adding that the mobile features of the lab can help "save time" on the way back and forth and "lift efficiency."

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has continued to enhance epidemic prevention and control measures such as nucleic acid testing, epidemiological investigations, and concentrated isolation at air and land ports to prevent imported cases.

With an appearance of a standard shipping container, the lab can be transported by sea, train and truck. "It can be shipped overseas very conveniently," Xu noted, adding that they have talked with some potential customers from Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia and are seeking opportunities in African countries.

The laboratory's testing capacity is expected to meet the demand of 1,500 people a day in the future. 

Previously this year, the mobile P3 labs served in cities such as Beijing, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province and Mudanjiang in Northwest China's Heilongjiang Province. For instance, the P3 lab in Beijing once tested 1,700 samples in 12 hours.