PolyU researchers have been applying their research and innovation capabilities to support frontline healthcare workers and the public since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Ms Hazel Lo, Research Assistant at PolyU’s Department of Health Technology and Informatics, is one of them.

Hazel has been involved in PolyU's research on COVID-19 whole-genome sequencing that has played a pivotal role in helping the Government trace and stop virus transmission chains since the pandemic emerged.

As a key researcher of the team led by Associate Professor Dr Gilman Siu, Hazel was tasked to help share PolyU’s sequencing expertise with the Princess Margaret Hospital’s medical laboratory specialists and prepare the operation manuals for them.

Following the recent surge of new COVID-19 cases to tens of thousands every day, Hazel temporarily withdrew from the University's research, so that she could use her medical laboratory expertise to support the frontline test service of the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Despite the overwhelming workload, Hazel found the sense of achievement from working at the hospital no less than that at the university lab, as she told Ming Pao Daily News, Sing Tao Daily, Wen Wei Po and HK01 in an interview.