[Management of samples in pathology laboratories and biobanks during the Covid-19 pandemic]

The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically disrupted the functionning and the organization of hospitals, notably the clinical departments and the biology laboratories. Moreover, this pandemic led to sudden impact in the management of tissue and cytological samples by pathology laboratories and biobanks. The consequences concerned the urgent mandatory setting up of sanitary measures adapted to these laboratories. Another consequence was to note a strong decrease of the different activities in pathology laboratories and biobanks. So, in this context, the health workers in pathology laboratories and biobanks had to organize their laboratories according to the international guidelines for sanitary measures, aiming to keep going to take care of clinical and molecular diagnoses too. This review adresses the main consequences induced by the Covid-19 pandemic in pathology laboratories and in biobanks and some of the different actions took by these laboratories in order to maintain their activity during this crisis period.