Exploration of quality control methods for regional COVID-19 nucleic acid detection laboratories

Objective: To explore the quality and safety of testing in the city′s regional medical laboratories for COVID-19 nucleic acid detection. Methods: To strengthen the quality control of the city′s medical laboratories for COVID-19 nucleic acid detection through monthly inspections, squatting inspections, emergency inspections, blind sample surveys, sample retention, and retesting. Results: Regional medical laboratories for COVID-19 nucleic acid detection were non-compliant in terms of personnel qualifications, business training, internal quality control, result judgement, retesting processes, report uploading, cleaning and disinfection, and medical waste disposal. The number of laboratories conducting COVID-19 nucleic acid testing gradually expanded from 29 at the beginning of the outbreak on March 18 to 98 on May 16, but the number of non-compliant laboratories did not increase significantly. The pass rate of the blind sample survey of the city′s medical testing laboratories ranged from 96.6% to 100.0%, and the