translated from Spanish: A fortnight of universities help laboratories diagnose COVID-19

Thanks to the articulation of the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Health and scientific societies, this week university laboratories in Arica, Iquique, Copiapó, La Serena, Viña del Mar, Santiago, Concepción, Temuco and Valdivia were integrated into the network of national diagnosis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, offering its analytical capacity at the service of the country’s public hospitals.” Through the management of THE SEREMI of Science and the generosity of academic and research communities in different regions of Chile, the capacity of 15 outstanding universities today is at the service of the public health network. To date, 29 research laboratories have converted their capacity for the diagnosis of coronavirus,” said Science Minister Andrés Couve.With the addition of new certified university laboratories, there are already 11 regions that count with these centers, which will allow to have the best distributed national diagnostic capacity, and thereby deliver the results of PCR exams with greater speed in the different areas of the country. In this vein, the Under-Secretary of Science, Carolina Torrealba, argued that “with the addition of more university laboratories to the public network we can deconcentrate diagnostic capabilities in the regions, which will allow us to deliver with relevance the Results. Today, thanks to the work of pooling with universities and scientific societies, we are putting our efforts into having at least one diagnostic laboratory by region.” The network of universities1. University of Tarapacá: Laboratory of Environmental and Labour Public Health.2. Arturo Prat University: Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory.3. University of Antofagasta: Laboratory of Molecular Virology of the Faculty of Marine Sciences and Biological Resources.4. Atacama University: Molecular Biology Laboratory.5. University of La Serena: Laboratory of the Department of Food Engineering, and Laboratory of the Department of Biology.6. University of Valparaiso: Clinical Laboratories of that university.7. Andrés Bello University: Virology Laboratories of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences.8. University of Chile: Virology Laboratory, led by the Virology Program of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine.9. Autonomous University of Chile: Virology Laboratory of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Health Sciences.10. University of Santiago: Virology Laboratory of the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center.11. Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception: Research Laboratories in Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine.12. University of Concepción: Laboratory of Immunovirology of the Faculty of Biological Sciences and Center of Biotechnology.13. University of La Frontera: Laboratory of Bioanalysis and Molecular Diagnostics, and the Laboratory of Molecular Morphology and Cell Culture.14. Universidad Austral in Valdivia: Diagnostic Laboratory of Hantavirus.15. University of Magellan: Laboratory of Molecular Medicine of the Teaching and Research Assistance Center (CADI) in partnership with the Magellan Clinical Hospital and Magellan Health Service.

Original source in Spanish