So tests are running in the lab
They first met Omikron on Georgstrasse in Hanover in December. The variant of the corona virus that is now prevalent in Germany was still rather rare in Alexander Bertram’s memory at the time. “At the beginning of December there was almost only delta.” The doctor of veterinary medicine is head of the team for PCR-based pathogen diagnostics in one of the largest PCR test laboratories in Germany. “Right now we’re seeing mostly omicron.”
The laboratory belongs to the Amedes Group and is located in Hanover diagonally across from the opera. Molecular genetics and pathogen diagnostics form two of the core areas of the Hanover branch, as Thomas Hackenbeck says. The doctor of biology is head of the Laboratory for Molecular Genetics.
Coronavirus demands a lot of attention in the laboratory
120 people work here. If you stand in front of the entrance to the building between Kröpcke and Ägidientorplatz, you would have no idea that all sorts of medical samples are being examined on four floors behind it. Where else, for example, chlamydia or other sexually transmitted diseases are tested in pathogen diagnostics, the corona virus is currently attracting a large part of the attention.
Entries to Georgstrasse come from all over Germany. Most of them come from medical practices, but health authorities and test centers also send their samples to Hanover, according to Hackenbeck.
The traffic on the first floor is immense. The samples are delivered there and recorded in the laboratories on the higher floors. They carried out around 13,000 corona PCR tests in the past week alone, and 32 percent of the samples were positive. “At peak times we managed up to 20,000 tests a week,” says Bertram. That was just before Christmas and at one of the peaks of the pandemic. “At the moment the number of samples is increasing again.”
PCR test results come at 2am at night
Back then, Bertram and his team sometimes worked late into the night. “All samples that arrive by 6 p.m. will still be examined.” And the senders will receive the results on the same day – even at 2 a.m. at night. But that was an exceptional case.
The federal and state governments fear that the omicron wave will overload the laboratories. That is why, in the future, everyone who has a positive rapid test or a red tile in the Corona warning app, for example, should no longer receive a free PCR test. The specific groups from the medical field or the critical infrastructure are reserved.
This has been criticized several times. After all, the PCR test is considered the “gold standard”, while the rapid tests are less reliable. According to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Germany is one of the countries in Europe with the fewest PCR tests per 100,000 inhabitants. There were 2164 in the second calendar week of 2022, which is about the same as in Romania. European champion Austria creates 89,543. Hackenbeck and Bertram do not want to comment on this. It’s politics and not her business.
94 PCR test results every 15 minutes
Even with the current volume, the laboratory is apparently well utilized. After manual preparation, a PCR test is mainly carried out automatically and takes around 45 minutes in total. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction and is a molecular-biological method with which fragments of the genetic material, for example from corona viruses, are multiplied. “It works like a photocopier,” explains Bertram. Such a fragment is “copied” up to 50 times. The aim is to generate large amounts of DNA. “Because it’s only through the crowd that you can see what’s in front of you,” explains Hackenbeck. After 15 minutes, a machine spits out 94 results: positive or negative. Corona yes or no.
That’s enough for most. But sometimes the sender wants to know which mutant it is. Then they also do a so-called mutation PCR test at Amedes. The process takes about a whole day. “It’s a lot more manual,” says Hackenbeck.
And then 5 percent of all positive corona tests of the so-called full genome sequencing must also be carried out. The Federal Ministry of Health has been demanding this since the beginning of last year. Not only is a fragment of the virus genome examined, but the entire genome, which, according to Hackenbeck, takes a good five days per 400 samples. The laboratory sends the results to the Robert Koch Institute. There, the data is used to discover new virus variants. Omicron might not have been the last variant they encountered in the laboratory on Georgstrasse.
By Karl Doeleke