We need to produce 24 hour results.
That means that we have to work
three shifts, 12 hours, 12 hours, 12 hours.
We've been working very long, long hours.
But at the end of the day, peoples lives matter and the country comes first.
I'm a microbiologist by profession. Looking at this
organisms that cause infectious diseases is something that I am passionate about.
So at the moment in Timor-Leste, the country is facing
probably the hardest moment
in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Delta variant has entered the country.
It's transmitting rapidly through the community,
and we're seeing very high numbers, and also seeing more severe cases.
Timor-Leste has done an amazing job, actually, in responding to this global crisis
and for a long time managed to keep COVID-19 cases restricted to within quarantine
and which really helped to prepare for what would inevitably come.
Around March, there started being cases within the community and cases
spread quite quickly. And then in early April,
Timor-Leste was affected by terrible floods, particularly in Dili.
The flood pushed the crowd towards a certain area together,
They lost their homes because of the flooding.
People have been forced to take evacuation and shelter.
And I think that's that's one of the reason why we have
widespread the coronavirus.
During the flood, we stopped for 24 hours.
A massive amount of work put in on Easter Sunday,
and from the laboratory with everyone getting around
to try to clear the water out. The guys on the ground really did tremendous job
to be back on our feet within 48 hours after it was affected by flooding
was that was something that is unimaginable.
It was a really concerning time because there were so many people
who were forced out of their homes and into temporary shelters,
into temporary accommodation to be able to survive that few weeks.
And so it just pushed a lot of people together and I think was unfortunately
just the perfect transmission ground for COVID-19 to spread rapidly.
And after that, we started to see the spike of cases.
I'm a paediatrician and have been working very closely
with the paediatric department at the National Hospital here in Timor.
And amongst the paediatric doctors at the time was Dr
Carla Madeira, whose husband Nevio Sarmento happens
to be one of the first microbiology trained scientists in the country.
He'd recently returned from having done his master's and was really passionate
about being able to establish services for diagnosing infectious
diseases in Timor-Leste.
I saw the opportunity of working with Menzies, to
increase my knowledge, in an area of microbiology and infectious disease.
And that's why I joined the team and have been working
with the team ever since.
Became very good friends over this time, and
and have plotted and planned together and worked really closely
with the Ministry of Health and the National Laboratory
to try to think through how to respond to some of
the infectious diseases challenges that are already here in Timor-Leste.
But then over the last couple of years, to apply some of those same principles
to try to respond effectively to COVID-19 as well.
The lab needed to be ready because the pandemic is happening
and we knew the capacity of the lab needed to scale up.
Then the collaboration between National Health Laboratory
and Menzies worked to expand the National Health Laboratory.
And I could say it was a very...
a long ride.
And, introducing the testing capacity for COVID-19 is a big challenge.
It wasn't a small thing to undertake at all.
It has required significant investment in the infrastructure in the laboratory.
It's required a lot of training,
but it's been really great over the last year and a half to see
how much of that has as seen the work of the National Health Laboratory grow.
So when the COVID-19 testing started in about April 2020,
the capacity of the laboratory was around 10 to 20 tests per day.
But in response to the increasing need. The capacity
within the laboratory is grown
and so the laboratory is doing over a thousand tests a day, most days.
We are expanding to all the district now.
We have five referral hospitals and eight satellite areas
where we can test PCR COVID-19 in the municipalities.
I think coronavirus is here to stay and,
and it has been a good learning curve for National Health Laboratory,
for all the scientists, for all the frontline
workers to prepare more for what's to come in the future.