Air-inflated testing lab for COVID-19 enters operation in China's Gansu

LANZHOU -- After more than 20 hours of construction and debugging, the "Falcon" air-inflated laboratory for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing entered operation Sunday in Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province.

By Saturday, Gansu had logged 41 locally transmitted confirmed cases, part of a new wave of COVID-19 infections that has hit various regions in China.

The newly-built lab, with a daily maximum testing capacity of 80,000 tubes, or 800,000 people if using pool testing methods, will aid Lanzhou's second round of citywide testing, according to Shen Dongsheng, general director of the lab.

"More than 100 staff in the laboratory are divided into two shifts for 24-hour uninterrupted testing," Shen said. "Before Lanzhou, the 'Falcon' lab assisted Guangzhou, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Xiamen, Harbin and other cities in greatly improving their testing capacity in a short period of time."

Previously, seven mobile nucleic acid testing labs were dispatched to the city, which had completed nearly 3.4 million tests by Saturday.