Monitoring System Ensures Viability of COVID19 Test Samples

Hanwell Solutions Ltd has contributed its expertise to the national collaboration between the UK’s leading manufacturers, to ensure that testing laboratories get the viable samples they need in the battle to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

As the nation pulls together to tackle the coronavirus epidemic, the UK’s leading manufacturer of wireless environmental monitoring equipment is focusing on its ShockWatch product range of temperature indicators, for tracking the environmental conditions during both transport and storage of samples required for the hundreds of thousands of test kits needed by labs for diagnosis.

Diagnostic testing kits for Covid-19, and indeed any other virus, are reliant on samples remaining at the correct temperatures during shipment and storage to ensure the maximum time span for viability. The colder a sample is kept during transportation and storage, the greater the amount of time the lab has to do the test before the sample becomes non-viable. If the sample has been transported at a higher temperature and for a longer time the virus in the sample could be dead by the time the lab does the test.

Multi-award-winning Hanwell is recommending the use of the WarmMark monitoring system, a single-use, ascending time-temperature indicator which alerts users of exposure to unacceptable temperature conditions through a coloured window system on a single card.

WarmMark clearly alerts testing laboratories if the sample is viable or not. In these trying times these systems will save overworked staff and labs from wasting time in pointless testing - and ultimately protecting patients from a false negative diagnosis that may result in infectious people being sent home, unaware that they are liable to spread the virus further.

Derek Richardson, Hanwell’s International Sales Director, said the Shockwatch solution is another great example of the UK manufacturing sector collaborating to help defeat the gravest threat to the nation since the Second World War.

He explained: “British companies are demonstrating that by combining our ingenuity, tenacity and talent we can really make a difference during these critical times. Transport could be a weak link in terms of safety procedures due to inconsistent temperature conditions. The WarmMark system will clearly show up red if samples have been compromised, saving valuable lab resources on testing kits that are useless. Having WarmMark monitoring in place should encourage all those who are responsible for the safety of these samples to do their utmost to safeguard them under proper conditions.”

More information here and here