globalnews.ca
50%
170
COVID-19: N.S. microbiology lab plays catch-up with backlog, processes record number of tests
COVID-19 samples Sunday, something that is nothing short of remarkable, according to Dr. Todd Hatchette, the chief of microbiology for Nova Scotia Health.“It’s an incredible feat to actually scale up to that much volume,” said Hatchette.On Friday during the provincial COVID-19 briefing, Premier Iain Rankin revealed that Nova Scotia had a backlog of 45,000 COVID-19 cases waiting to be processed at the provincial microbiology lab in Halifax.Then, over the weekend, health-care specialists and lab teams worked around the clock to catch up on the testing backlog while bringing more staff on board, said Hatchette.It’s anticipated the lab will be caught up by the end of the day Monday, with a return to 48-hour turnarounds on testing results.