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When the first sample came for testing, Lauren Jelley had to keep her hands from shaking.
After being a scientist for almost 20 years and a technical leader in the ESR virus identification reference laboratory, she is no stranger to test samples. But this one was different.
It was the first suspicious Covid-19 sample collected in New Zealand.
I wasn’t nervous about the virus I was handling; As soon as it is disabled, it cannot infect other things. Instead, it was mounting pressure and the impending deadline that was stressful. All eyes were on her and the results of the test.
ESR
Lauren Jelley, ESR Technical Leader, leads an all-female team of researchers.
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“All of New Zealand was waiting, holding its breath for those results, so we wanted to get them out as quickly as possible.”
“PCR [polymerase chain reaction tests] sometimes it doesn’t work for various reasons … this could not be filled, it had to work … otherwise you would have to [tell] Prime Minister ‘I’m sorry, you have nothing to say today because I am full.’ “
The first four swabs and tests yielded negative results. The first case in the country was identified on February 28. ESR did not analyze the sample, but Jelley and his team, based in Wellington, confirmed this. She said that when they heard they were being sent a positive sample from Auckland, there was a clash between the team of five people.
ESR
ESR scientist preparing a polymerase chain reaction test as part of diagnostic laboratory tests for the new 2019 coronavirus.
“We knew it was positive, the sample, when it was going down, I think the whole team was like ‘oh wow, this is, it’s in New Zealand.'”
After that, stress and pressure decreased as more laboratories with greater testing capacity were incorporated.
ALDEN WILLIAMS / THINGS
Journalist Michael Hayward volunteered to take the Covid-19 exam in Christchurch on Friday.
In the days, weeks, and months after that day, the team has been busy and focused solely on Covid-19. Prior to this, his work covered polio surveillance with the World Health Organization (WHO) and influenza surveillance and testing. Usually at this time of year they would be seeing dengue and the Zika virus, but the lack of international travel has meant that there are no samples.
Typically, at the height of the flu season, they would only test about 100 samples per day, but they did 357 the other day alone.
ESR
ESR senior technician Jessica Danielewicz works on a sample of Covid-19.
“[That’s] it’s a big problem for us because it’s a manual removal process. “
To date, the ESR team has tested 2,200 samples. It is only a fraction of the total number of samples made by laboratories across the country, because ESR uses manual testing methods, while others use machines.
But the laboratory’s focus has shifted from test samples to virus culture.
Using the positive samples they have collected over the months, the ESR team was looking to the future. The positive material is considered “valuable” for the ongoing research and can be used for any possible vaccine being created. It is also used to help determine where viruses originated in New Zealand through genome sequencing.
Initially, the setup in the ESR lab was strict. All virus management was performed in a PC3 environment, despite WHO recommendations to operate on a degraded PC2. This meant that researchers had to wear tie suits, a filtered Jupiter hood, and were asked to shower every time they went out.
Since then, security procedures related to virus management have decreased. They work in a PC2 environment: everything is done in a class 2 biological safety cabinet and they can wear their own clothes. But they chose to maintain various PC3 practices for team security, such as double gloving.
“What an original sample has touched, which is disinfected before it comes out.
“The more you learn about the virus, the more you can degrade PPE until it reaches a level you are sure of.”
Jelley praised her team’s work for the laboratory’s success during the pandemic.
“You have heard the saying that for every successful man there is a strong woman standing next to him, well, I have [four] Very strong females by my side, and we are a very successful team for that. “
She called them the “hidden figures” of the pandemic.
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ESR Clinical Virology Team. From left Jessica Danielewicz, Wendy Gunn, Jacqui Ralston, Lauren Jelley, and Judy Bocacao.
“They are never really named and I think they are an amazing team,” he said.
They are Judy Bocacao, Jacqui Ralston, Wendy Gunn and Jessica Danielewicz.
Her experience in this field meant that New Zealand was prepared for the virus before the first swab was taken. A committee was formed in early January to begin planning a response.
They decided to buy the necessary equipment they would need, PPE, and even managed to secure some test kits in a matter of days. Jelley explained that they did not want to repeat the 2009 swine flu pandemic, where they ran out of gloves.
“We had all the skills and we had the whole team. We had all the PPE.”
ESR
ESR researchers have tested 2,200 samples of Covid-19.
Three of his employees had overcome the swine flu pandemic and were familiar with the operation on PC3, so they began to improve and train others.
During the crash and Alert Level 3, the team has been working on a rotating list: two days in a row, two days off. When Jelley is not in the lab, she is working at home and taking care of her two young children.
Since January, the virus has consumed his life, and now almost every conversation he has involves the word ‘coronavirus,’ including those with his 5 and 7-year-old children.
“You can not [escape it]. My two children know everything I was doing, why I was working late, and that I was trying to find the coronavirus. “
But all the hard work and sacrifices have been worth it, because when the next pandemic comes, we will be ready, he said.
“[With the] the next pandemic, everyone will know what to do. “
