Securing Reagent Supplies and Scaling COVID-19 [Funder: Genome BC, UBC]

As the COVID-19 pandemic expands around the world, the BC Centre for Disease Control and other testing sites are facing two dire problems: a shortage in reagents and the personnel needed to ramp-up diagnostic testing. In the immediate term the project team will ensure that BC can maintain and expand its capacity for COVID-19 testing by making sure that reagent sources can be sourced locally. In the medium term, these reagents will be further validated, and production scaled up to meet the accelerating testing demands in BC. The establishment of molecular resources, protocols and formulations will also ensure that BC and Canada are prepared to meet future pandemics in the face of disrupted global supply chains. Ultimately, a stable supply of reagents, produced locally, will allow expansion of testing to mild/asymptomatic cases, resulting in enhanced contact tracing and isolation that will limit onward transmission.