COLUMBIA, S.C. — After you take your COVID-19 test, what's collected comes to a place like South Carolina's Public Health Laboratory.
News19 got an inside look as things wrapped up for the day, sitting down with the scientists behind South Carolina's COVID-19 response.
"We are a level three lab where we test for agents of bioterrorism... chemical threats...influenza," Dr. Nicolas Epie, the state Public Health Lab Director, said. "We don't have an alternative to not perform the work that we do."
A few floors up, a random sampling of positive COVID-19 tests were being sequenced to check for variants of concern like Omicron or Delta.
Dr. Brannon Traxler, the state's Public Health Director, is among those reviewing the data.
"When these sequencers produce the results from that specimen that they have been looking at then those results, that actual genetic code, goes to our epidemiologists... and those folks do the data analysis," Dr. Traxler said, "... and they, of course, share those sequences with the CDC so that they can look for a bigger picture across the country.”
Right now, the majority of cases are of hte more easily transmissible Omicron strain.
"We are constantly analyzing all these specimens to see if a new pattern emerges that may end up being a new variant," Dr. Traxler said.
The process continues even though they too are not immune to the virus and its impact on staffing.
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"I have a limited staff but I get help from everybody and I mean that's pretty much how the how the whole lab works because COVID is an all hands on deck type thing," Gregory Goodwin, the Molecular Epidemiology Supervisor, said.
Dr. Epie said they are the "people's lab" and will continue to assist with whatever they're tasked with, despite the challenges they may face.