Abstract
Coronavirus has imposed many difficulties across the globe, with infected cases emerging everywhere, leaving countries devastated. Developing countries such as Cambodia are facing problems when dealing with COVID-19 due to the lack of resources for elongating the diagnostic setup processes. Subsequently, the National Institute of Public Health has worked side by side with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and development partners to ensure the complete and proper laboratory facilities specializing in screening and diagnosing COVID-19. The testing room arrangement procedures were aligned with the Laboratory Quality Management System (LQMS) assessment tool to guarantee an ideal working environment for laboratory technicians and scientists with reliable results for patients.
This process of conducting trials for the GeneXpert PCR lab setup requires the following 5 steps: 1) LQMS assessment, 2) staff training, 3) infrastructure preparation, 4) information management system, and 5) equipment validation to reach its full potential. This strategy will respond to the outbreak, prevent and lessen death caused by COVID-19, as citizens will have access to better testing sites.
The success of setting up for COVID-19 testing is strongly affected by the commitment of the laboratory personnel. Having a strong commitment and clear understanding of the testing process would help speed up the setup of the COVID-19 testing service. Strong technical and financial support from MOH and development partners could also facilitate the readiness of the laboratory in providing COVID-19 testing services. During the pandemic, additional support should be allocated to the laboratory, especially at the early stage of the emergency, so that the laboratory could have enough time and resources to expand its services.