OKC-based office trains thousands to safely transport coronavirus tests

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — While thousands are being tested for coronavirus around the country, those tests and samples carrying the virus have to be transported carefully.

People from around the world get their training in Oklahoma City, at the Transportation Safety Institute.

The institute is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and is the only federal facility that trains people to transport infectious materials like COVID-19 tests.

“A lot of people that we’ve trained are using all of it," said Pete Kramer, the institute's Multi-Modal Safety Division Manager. "That’s what I see now, and they’re busy doing their jobs and busy applying what they have learned. I can see, in the future, that we’ll get a lot of requests to help people prepare."

After people are tested for COVID-19 with a swab and it's sealed in a tube, someone needs to take to a lab.

They're trained to triple package it in a bio-hazard bag that is pressure tested.

"It’s put inside a package or a box and the box has also been tested for a four-foot drop test," Kramer said.

That's what they call Category B packaging, the same used for diseases like SARS, H1N1, and HIV.

In the past five years, about 2,000 people like health care workers and delivery workers have taken the infectious disease course.

“It’s an eight-hour course, and we teach people how to go in and make sure they package the materials and identify the materials for transportation so that when they are shipping it; if there’s any incidents or accidents along the way during the transportation system, that they safely handle properly and they don’t have any issues," Kramer said.

While there are private companies that offer that training as well, the Transportation Safety Institute has worked with places like the Mayo Clinic Labs in Minnesota, state health departments and universities.

The institute says it has even provided training for people as far away as Finland and Oman.

The Oklahoma City-based office also provides courses on everything from aviation training to highway safety training.