Chinese lab helps Serbia boost Covid-19 testing capacity

State-of-the-art facility is the first that Beijing Genomics Institute has helped build in Europe and can do 2,000 tests a day

Its 40 employees were all trained by Chinese who have set up laboratories in Wuhan and other cities

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A Chinese expert provides training to a Serbian laboratory employee at the facility in Belgrade. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:44pm, 13 May 2020Updated: 5:25am, 14 May 2020

A Chinese-built state-of-the-art laboratory is helping to nearly double Serbia’s testing capacity for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, in the latest example of close ties between Belgrade and Beijing.

The Huo-Yan National Laboratory for Molecular Detection of Infectious Agents in Belgrade is the first that the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) has helped to build in Europe and has the capacity to carry out more than 2,000 tests a day.

The laboratory’s 40 employees were all trained by Chinese colleagues who previously set up Covid-19 testing laboratories in Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first emerged, and 10 other Chinese cities.

To prevent infections, all 40 employees are being accommodated in nearby hotels and cannot see their families.

Jelena Begovic, a coordinator in charge of the laboratory, said another lab with a daily capacity for 1,000 samples would also be built in the southern Serbian town of Nis.

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