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A pair of automated testing machines at St. Paul’s Hospital typically used for HIV and hepatitis B have been repurposed to analyze COVID-19 testing swabs.

The repurposed machines could theoretically test more than 2,000 COVID-19 samples a day, which quadruples St. Paul’s capacity to detect the novel coronavirus in samples taken from suspected COVID-19 patients.

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In a media release, St. Paul’s Foundation — which raises funds for the downtown hospital — says the two Roche cobas 6800 machines began analyzing COVID-19 samples on Saturday, after “working around the clock with Roche Canada,” the makers of the instruments, to convert the machines.

These are the first units in Canada to be repurposed in this way.

At full capacity, the automated machines could each analyze about 1,000 swabs in a 24-hour period. Because the test kits used to swab for COVID-19 are in short supply, the machines are running at about half speed, analyzing 300 to 500 swabs each a day.