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Covid-19 testing capacity in the UK will more than double, with major new labs opening early next year, a sign the government is planning for the pandemic to persist despite hopes from a number of candidates. vaccines.
The facilities, one in Leamington Spa and the other in 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 used across the UK – which can be processed every day by 600,000, from 520,000 today.
The government said the “mega-laboratories” would speed up test processing, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they would be useful “to future-proof our national infrastructure to respond to future epidemics.”
The labs are expected to be operational early next year, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said last night. No details on 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 prioritized to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. The list is:
1 All ages 80 and over and health and social workers.
2 Everyone aged 75 and over.
3 Anyone 70+.
4 All those aged 65 and over.
5 Adults under 65 at high risk of serious illness and mortality from Covid-19.
6 Adults under 65 at moderate risk of at risk of serious illness and mortality from Covid-19.
7 Everyone aged 60 and over.
8 Everyone aged 55 and over.
9 Everyone aged 50 and over.
10 Rest of the population.
On Sunday, a prominent scientist behind the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine candidate, who passed interim clinical trials and showed 90% effectiveness in preventing people from getting sick, said he was “very confident” that it would also reduce the coronavirus transmission of “maybe 50%”.
Professor Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, told the BBC that his goal was to return to normal next winter, with the vaccine program running throughout 2021.
His comments and the construction of the new labs reinforce warnings that the end of the pandemic will remain many months away. However, on Sunday, the head of the National Statistics Office, prof. Sir Ian Diamond confirmed a “slowdown in the growth rate” in cases in the country, however.
With two weeks of lockdown restrictions across England still to come, Prof Susan Michie, a Sage member, said over the weekend that the public must resist breaking the rules to be able to see the family. at Christmas. Professor John Edmunds, another Sage member, added: “We need to have a long-term view, be reasonable 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 may be ready for launch by Christmas as long as results and approval go as hoped, more than 170 other candidate vaccines are under development, 11 of which are in phase 3 of efficacy testing.
Results from the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine candidate are expected within a few weeks, and there are also high hopes for a candidate from the Modern American company.
If the new labs are not needed for Covid testing, they will be used to increase the ability to improve testing for diseases including cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, the DHSC said.
The UK already has five Lighthouse Laboratories in Milton Keynes, Alderley Park, Glasgow, Cambridge and Newport, while others have opened in Charnwood, Newcastle, Brants Bridge and Plymouth.
Meanwhile, Labor leader Keir Starmer wrote to Boris Johnson requesting a national action plan for the vaccine launch, which he predicted could be Britain’s largest logistical 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 be turned into local vaccine clinics. He also wants to see criteria for vaccine eligibility and a guarantee of “fair access … no matter where you live”.
The new labs will process tests done at hundreds of test sites across the country and at home. On Sunday it emerged that a G4S-operated test site in Postwick, near Norwich, was closed after four staff members tested positive for the virus.
“The site will be thoroughly cleaned up according to British public health guidelines and reopened as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for G4S said.
Dido Harding, managing director of NHS test and trace, said the new labs were needed to match a growing number of test sites that people go to for swab tests. Around 300,000 PCR tests are processed each day – double the number in August and 10 times the number at the end of April.
The new labs are separate from the “Operation Moonshot” rapid test program, which delivers results in under an hour using different technologies and is being tested in Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent and, from Monday, with visitors of approximately 20 nursing homes in Hampshire, Cornwall and Devon.
“The addition of these new labs will mean another step in our testing capability next year,” Harding said. “Not only does this mean more tests, it also means they can be processed faster and the time it takes to receive results is reduced.”
Health Minister Lord Bethell, who is overseeing the tests, said of the new labs: “This work is absolutely crucial to addressing Covid-19 and enabling a return to greater normalcy in our lives.”
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