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Covid-19 testing capacity in the UK is set to more than double, with new laboratories opening early next year in a sign that the government is planning for the pandemic to persist despite the hopes of several vaccine candidates. .
The facility, one at Leamington Spa and the other at an unidentified location in Scotland, will employ up to 4,000 people and increase the number of PCR tests, the gold standard swab tests already in use in the UK, that can be processed. 600,000 daily, up from 520,000 today.
The government said the “mega-laboratories” would speed up the processing of the tests, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they would be useful in “preparing our national infrastructure for the future to respond to future epidemics.”
The laboratories will be operational in the first months of next year, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said last night. There were no details on the costs or who will manage them.
The UK government’s joint committee on vaccination and immunization has published a list of groups of people who will be given priority to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. The list is:
1 All those aged 80 and over and health and social assistance workers.
2 All those 75 years of age or older.
3 All those 70 and over.
4 All those over 65 years of age.
5 Adults under 65 at high risk of severe illness and mortality from Covid-19.
6 Adults under 65 years of age at moderate risk of severe illness and mortality from Covid-19.
7 All those 60 and over.
8 Everyone 55 years of age or older.
9 All those aged 50 or over.
10 Rest of the population.
On Sunday, a leading scientist behind the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine candidate, which has approved interim clinical trials and shown to be 90% effective in keeping people from getting sick, said he was “very confident” that it would also reduce the transmission of the coronavirus in “maybe 50%”.
Professor Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, told the BBC that their goal was for normalcy to return next winter, with the vaccine program implemented throughout 2021.
His comments and the construction of the new labs reinforce warnings that the pandemic is many months away. However, on Sunday, the head of the Office for National Statistics, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, confirmed a “slowdown in the rate of growth” in cases in the country.
With two weeks of lockdown restrictions across England to come, Sage member Professor Susan Michie said over the weekend that the public must resist breaking the rules to be in a position to see the family at Christmas. Professor John Edmunds, another Sage member, added: “We need to take a long-term view and be sensible and realize that we will have to have restrictions in place for some time.”
In addition to the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, some doses of which could be ready for launch by Christmas provided the results and approval are as expected, there are more than 170 candidate vaccines in development, 11 of which are in efficacy trials. phase 3.
Results from the Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccine candidate are expected in a few weeks, and there are also high hopes for a candidate from the American company Moderna.
If the new labs are not needed for Covid testing, they will be used to increase the ability to improve testing for diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, the DHSC said.
The UK already has five Lighthouse laboratories in Milton Keynes, Alderley Park, Glasgow, Cambridge and Newport, with others being installed in Charnwood, Newcastle, Brants Bridge and Plymouth.
Meanwhile, Labor leader Keir Starmer has written to Boris Johnson requesting a national action plan for the launch of the vaccine, which he predicted could be Britain’s largest logistics operation since World War II. The government has already ordered 40 million doses of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, enough for 20 million people to receive the required double dose.
Starmer said city halls and sports centers may need to become local vaccine clinics. You also want to see the eligibility criteria for the vaccine and a guarantee of “equitable access … no matter where you live.”
The new labs will process tests performed at hundreds of test sites across the country and at home. On Sunday, it emerged that a G4S-run test site in Postwick, near Norwich, was shut down after four staff members tested positive for the virus.
“The site will be thoroughly cleaned according to Public Health England guidelines and will be reopened as soon as possible,” said a G4S spokesperson.
Dido Harding, executive director of testing and tracing for the NHS, said the new labs were needed to match an increasing number of test sites people are turning to for swab testing. Around 300,000 PCR tests are processed daily, twice the number in August and ten times the number in late April.
The new labs are independent of the “Operation Moonshot” rapid test program, which gives results in less than an hour using different technologies and is being tested in Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent and, as of Monday, with visitors of about 20 residences. in Hampshire, Cornwall and Devon.
“The addition of these new labs will mean another step forward in our testing capacity next year,” Harding said. “That will not only mean more tests, but it will also mean they can be processed more quickly and the time it takes to receive results is reduced.”
Health Minister Lord Bethell, who oversees the tests, said of the new labs: “This work is absolutely crucial in addressing Covid-19 and allowing the return of more normalcy to our lives.”
