BGI’s Huo-Yan Lab in Wuhan Photos: Shen Weiduo/GT

Now that the coronavirus has disappeared from Wuhan and life has returned to normal, the city in Central China's Hubei Province is hosting an international event relating to global health and sharing experience on fighting against the virus.

From suffering through an intense lockdown to becoming "a safe and healthy city," Wuhan's journey has not been easy, Wang Jian, founder of BGI, a Chinese genomics firm based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, said at the 15th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Genomics (ICG-15) on Tuesday. 

Wang said the city's Huo-Yan Lab, a special virus testing lab that is run by BGI, played a key role in helping Wuhan's early fight against the virus.  

Testing capacity for the coronavirus in Wuhan leaped from 10,000 to 30,000, then to 100,000 a day thanks to the lab, said Wang.

The Huo-Yan Lab helped empower China's mass testing ability, a key strategy in China's fight against the virus.

Key equipment used in the Huo-Yan Lab has now also been used in Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and exported to France, Australia, Serbia and United Arab Emirates.

"We not only send our equipment, but personnel to train, and teach local people how to use the equipment," a company staffer told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"With our accumulated experience, we can 'customize' testing capacity, which is our 'incomparable advantage' over competitors," said the person, who asked to remain anonymous.

Another industry insider also stressed that BGI has no access to patient information and data, neither in China or globally, as all operations are handed over to hospitals and local operators.

The ICG conference, which will start from Monday to Saturday, has attracted hundreds of top scientists in the world, focusing on global health amid COVID-19 pandemic and future trends in the genetics industry.

Newspaper headline: Wuhan shares experience on fighting against pandemic as city hosts intl conference