Statens Serum Institut (SSI) solves essential COVID-19 testing deficiency problem

SSI has developed a simple and fast method as an alternative to the chemical kit reagents that many laboratories are lacking to perform tests for COVID-19.

Updated 27 March 2020

All over the world, countries urgently wish to upscale their COVID-19 testing capacity. Unfortunately, several countries are in lack of the chemical reagents necessary to test their citizens for the disease.

Luckily, Statens Serum Institut (SSI) now brings good news. SSI has developed and tested a simple and fast method as an alternative to the chemical reagents on which many laboratories today depend for sample pretreatment and COVID-19 testing.

The method is slightly less sensitive than the standard method normally used for sample pretreatment, but this is estimated to have very little significance in the current situation.

Method published online

To make the method known as quickly as possible, SSI has chosen to publish and distribute the method online and by email to European laboratory colleagues to make it widely available to other laboratories, in Denmark as well as abroad.

Additionally, SSI will meet with Danish departments of clinical microbiology on 26 March 2020 to provide method instructions.

Hopefully, the method will shortly be contributing to increased COVID-19 test capacity, not only in Denmark, but also in other countries currently challenged by COVID-19 and a lack of reagents.

Read more

See the article in MEDRXIV