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The United Kingdom sent around 50,000 samples of coronavirus to the USA. USA After “operational problems” they meant they could not be processed in British laboratories.
The news comes after tests once again fell below the 100,000-a-day target: in the 24 hours at 9 am on Saturday morning only 96,878 tests were conducted, the seventh day in a row that the objective.
Confirming that the samples had been shipped to the United States last week, first reported in the Sunday Telegraph, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Assistance said the difficulty had been a technical problem with an automated laboratory process, which It slowed down the processing of tests and created a delay.
“The expansion of the UK coronavirus testing network has involved the creation of a completely new network of ‘Lighthouse’ laboratories to process test swabs,” they said.
“When problems arise, we have contingencies in place, including creating additional temporary capacity for our labs or shipping swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. Of course, our partner laboratories must meet our high standards. “
Initially, only patients in the hospital could be tested in the UK. The tests were then expanded to include NHS staff and home care staff. Now up to 10 million essential workers and their families showing coronavirus symptoms can request a test through a government website.
The essential worker list is the same as that used to allow the children of key workers to continue going to school during the closure. In addition to health and social work personnel, the list includes teachers, judges, some lawyers, religious personnel, and journalists who provide public broadcasting services.
Also included are local public officials, the police, armed service personnel, fire and rescue service personnel, immigration officers, and prison and probation personnel. Some of the private sector staff also qualify, including veterinarians, food production, essential financial services and information technology, as well as those working in the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors.
Matthew Weaver
The spokesperson said the results would be validated in the UK and sent to patients as soon as possible.
The government has also played down concerns that the tests have fallen below the promise of 100,000 tests per day. Speaking at the government’s daily press conference on Saturday, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said that daily variations in the tests were expected, and that the tests were at much higher levels than when the outbreak began. .
“We are now really on a high plateau, in the region of 100,000 tests per day,” he said.
While tests of patients with medical needs are conducted primarily in the Public Health Laboratories of England and the NHS, as well as some tests by NHS staff, Lighthouse’s “mega laboratories” are involved in more extensive testing of the Key workers, including testing samples from shortcut sites. However, this division varies by location.
Nicola Stonehouse, professor of molecular virology at the University of Leeds, which has research staff and students working in the Lighthouse laboratories, praised those who work at the facility, adding that the laboratories were still increasing their capacity and efficiency.
But, he said, there were challenges. “Things are not working at full capacity, and I think there are still problems with the arrival of the samples, which are not necessarily adequate and compatible with the automated equipment they have,” Stonehouse said.
“That means, therefore, if things are not compatible, if the samples have not been produced in the right way, then there must be much more human intervention: people must be involved in repackaging those samples, labeling those samples. etc. And that obviously takes time. “
Stonehouse said questions remained about how the Lighthouse system worked and what the bidding process involved.
“Certainly the [Lighthouse] lab in alderley park [in Cheshire] and the Milton Keynes lab doesn’t seem to be working the same way, they don’t have the same processes, “he said, although he said that didn’t mean there was something wrong with the way they performed the tests.
But, he said, the news that the United Kingdom was sending samples to the United States was puzzling.
“What I don’t understand is if there were problems in a Lighthouse lab, why they didn’t send samples to another Lighthouse lab, or to some of the NHS labs,” he said. “Lighthouse’s individual labs, to my understanding, don’t seem to be in contact and work as a unit: they seem to be working as separate and different labs, and that doesn’t seem like a logical thing to me.
Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, a professional body with many members working in NHS laboratories, expressed frustration at Lighthouse Laboratories, noting that they had little participation in the NHS.
“We don’t have much idea of what happens in these labs, they have been kept very distant from the NHS labs, so we don’t know what happens in them,” he said.
Wilson believes the situation would be more transparent if the NHS were closely involved in Lighthouse Labs.
He said: “We cannot get information on what tests they are doing and how they are doing the tests because it is largely a closed workshop and the staff has not been allowed to speak to the public about what they are doing.”
Dr. Alexander Edwards, an associate professor of biomedical technology at the University of Reading, said it was important to know the context of the evidence sent to the US. For example, if they were urgent samples from patients in the hospital, or tests among key workers to see if they can return to work.
“The point is, we can’t answer those questions about why tests are processed that way, unless we know what the need is and what kind of samples they are,” he said. “Without knowing why the tests were taken, it only increases chaos and confusion.”
Edwards said sending samples to the US USA It could be a cheap and fast way to eliminate a delay. He also noted that it was difficult to expand the evidence and that it was “unfair” to expect it to be a normal, everyday system of work.
But he said the challenges would increase once contact tracking was added to the equation.
“If it is difficult to configure only raw testing capacity, it has to be even more difficult to configure testing capacity linked to a track and trace service,” he said.
Professor Gordon Dougan of Cambridge University found it difficult to believe that the UK had to resort to sending samples abroad, adding that rapid local testing was vital, especially as the country emerged from closure.
“One of the downsides to remote test centers is speed and logistics,” he said. “Sending samples remotely can be a logistical challenge and the sample has to go through many hands before the information returns to the point of origin where it is needed: the individual examined. The UK lighthouse centers are a great effort on the part of those who set up the tests and have my full support, but I don’t see any obvious logic in sending samples abroad. In fact, I find it hard to believe that we really have to do this. ”
But while Dougan said the local testing center in Cambridge established by his team had already evaluated more than 3,000 health workers at Cambridge University hospitals, it would be difficult to establish similar centers as part of a larger effort.
“We need to translate this type of effort to the community, but the logistics of retrospectively establishing a system like this when we have neglected infrastructure over the years is a challenge, to say the least,” he said.
