Huoyan Laboratory – a newly-developed intelligent assistant screening system for the novel coronavirus pneumonia – is joining the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 in Harbin city in China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province.

The laboratory was put into use in Harbin International Convention and Exhibition Center on Jan 23, after a highly-efficient assembly that took just nine hours.

The laboratory includes a sample receiving area, reagent preparation area, sample preparation area and amplification area, as well as auxiliary conversion space such as an airlock conversion and medical waste exit.

It is equipped with advanced novel coronavirus nucleic acid detection equipment such as fully automatic nucleic acid extractors and high-performance servers.

The laboratory uses a fresh air system and a high-efficiency filtration system to filter and manage the air entering and leaving each functional area.

The unified gas elimination of the auxiliary connection area ensures each functional space's independence and the laboratory's cleanliness when discharging gas and medical waste. As a result, the facility meets the relevant biosafety standards in gene amplification laboratories and virus detection laboratories.

Compared with traditional nucleic acid testing laboratories, the construction cost of the Huoyan Laboratory is lower, and its detection efficiency is higher.

Currently, the daily nucleic acid detection capacity of Harbin Huoyan Laboratory can reach 200,000 people, which shortens the time people wait for test results and provides technical reserves for large-scale community screening.