/ -- Global genomics leader BGI has produced more than 10 million of its RT-PCR Test for SARS-CoV-2 and is distributing them to more than 80 countries around the world, including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, and Japan. BGI's Huo-Yan ("Fire Eye") Laboratories have also been set up in Asia, US, Europe, and the Middle East, bringing population-scale detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 to the world.
"The most critical thing for all of us at BGI is to help bring this pandemic under control. We are working with governments and institutions globally to achieve this mission," says Yin Ye, CEO of BGI Genomics, part of BGI Group. "We have more than trebled our production capacity to two million reactions a day to meet demand and expect to increase that again to three million reactions in the coming weeks."
Sequencing plays a number of roles in the fight against COVID-19, explains Duncan Yu, President of MGI. "It helped identify the virus that caused COVID-19 and can track new strains of the virus as it mutates and the speed of those changes."