West China Hospital held a ceremony to donate to Georgia the nucleus acid test kits for novel coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) at the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration of Sichuan Province on the morning of March 12. Vice President Jin Huang of WCH presided over the donation ceremony. Present at the ceremony were Jin Xu, Party Secretary and Director of Sichuan Province SASAC, Vice President Shijing Yan of Sichuan University, Ruyuan Shen, vice director of Sichuan Province SASAC, President Weimin Li of WCH, among others. As of 12 pm., March 11, a total of 37,449 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported outside of China in 114 countries and regions, including 23 cases in Georgia. After the outbreak, the Embassy of Georgia in China wrote a letter to Sichuan Province SASAC to seek assistance to contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19. After consulting with Sichuan Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, Sichuan Province SASAC contacted WCH and made arrangements for the donations. West China Hospital donations includedthe nucleus acid test kit for six respiratory viruses (or on-chip loop-medicated isothermal amplification ( LAMP ).The detective chip was devised and developed under the supervision of Mr. Nanshan Zhong, academician and director of the National Health Commission ( NHC ) high-level expert group and Ms. Lanjuan Li, academician and member of the NHC high-level expert group. It can detect six respiratory viruses simultaneously, including the novel coronavirus, within 1.5 hours using secretions of a patient’s nasal and throat swabs. So far, this technology has received 15 patents and seven science and technology awards.
Hua Yu, vice president and Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce of Chinese funded enterprises in Georgia, said that these kits would greatly help Georgia’s relevant departments to diagnose the infected in a short period of time, and would play an important role in epidemic prevention and control. " I feel very moved and grateful that I am entrusted by the Georgian government to attend this donation ceremony."
After being approvedby National Medical Products Administration as a second batchof emergency medical devices for new coronavirus, the nucleus acid test kits ( registration certificate number: GXZZ 20203400178 ) have been employed to provide rapid, accurate and effective diagnoses for patients and front-line medical staff across China.
