Laboratory diagnosis and management of COVID-19 cases: creating a safe testing environment

COVID-19 disease has had a profound impact worldwide since it was discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Laboratory testing is crucial to prompt identification of positive cases, initiation of treatment and management strategies. However, medical scientists are vulnerable to infection due to the risk of exposure in the laboratory and the community. This study sought to determine the awareness of laboratory safety measures, assess the personal efforts of medical scientists in creating a safe laboratory environment for testing and examine the laboratory safety enabling factors.

The data used for the study were generated among medical scientists in Nigeria through an internet-broadcasted questionnaire and were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 25).

The majority of the respondents had a high awareness of laboratory safety measures (60.3%) and demonstrated good personal efforts in creating a safe laboratory testing environment (63%). The level of awareness of laboratory safety measures was significantly associated with respondents' level of education (χ² = 6.143; p = 0.046) and influences respondents' efforts in creating a safe laboratory testing environment (p = 0.007). However, just a few respondents could convincingly attest to the availability of adequate and appropriate PPE with proper utilization training (45.1%), adequate rest and other welfare packages (45.8%) as well as access to appropriate Biological Safety Cabinets (BSCs) and other essential equipment in their laboratories (48.8%). Furthermore, a significant association existed between the availability of laboratory safety enabling factors and respondents' efforts in creating a safe environment for testing with the p-value ranging between < 0.0001 and 0.003.

This study revealed that despite the high awareness of safety measures and good personal efforts of the study participants in creating a safe laboratory-testing environment, there was poor availability of safety facilities, equipment, support and welfare packages required to enhance their safety. It is, therefore, crucial to provide necessary laboratory biosafety equipment and PPE in order not to compromise medical scientists' safety as they perform their duties in COVID-19 pandemic response.