The Biorama and Bioser laboratories will be behind one of La Vuelta 20’s greatest developments and, at the same time, an unprecedented innovation in Spain’s sporting events: the mobile COVID-19 lab.
It consists of a 14 metre-long trailer, with three side compartments, that will travel with La Vuelta 20 in order to carry out PCR tests to all the members of the Race Bubble (the competition nucleus that includes the cyclists, the team personnel and a very reduced group of people from the organisation that have frequent, close contact with the riders).
18 health professionals will work in the mobile lab, and will be responsible for guaranteeing the health security of La Vuelta, with regards to the pandemic, throughout the entire competition. This multidiscipline team will be made up doctors, medical practitioners who specialise in clinical analysis, chemists, biologists, biochemists, advanced clinical analysis specialists, lab technicians, technical health personnel, an IT expert and technical lab support staff.
The Biorama and Bioser mobile lab, financed exclusively through private funds, is equipped to carry out COVID PCR tests as well as rapid immunological tests. It features three thermo cyclers to carry out the COVID PCR test and three booths in order to ensure that theanalysis process is 100% safe, thus avoiding the risk of contamination of both the sample and of the lab technician performing the test.
This impressive mobile lab can certify the health status of between 700-750 participants per day, and the results will be obtained in just 24 hours. The lab equipment and rapid results will allow the analysis of up to 1000 samples per day, if necessary.
With this initiative, Bioser and Biorama hope not only to contribute to the security and wellbeing of all the riders, but also to the correct development of the competition.
Unipublic, organiser of La Vuelta, has spent months working on adapting its protocols to the context of the health crisis provoked by the COVID-19 virus. These specify, in great detail, the health safety framework in which the 2020 edition of the race will take place. The teams, sponsors, organisation and the media will be subject to strict health security measures, starting with the mandatory respect of basic regulations, based on individual responsibility, such as the use of face masks in all spaces set aside for La Vuelta, frequent handwashing and compliance with the minimum compulsory interpersonal safety distance.
