Two tests which can detect coronavirus and flu – and promise results in 90 minutes – are to be rolled out in hospitals, care homes and laboratories.
The swab and DNA tests will help deal with the virus in winter, helping ordinary Brits work out what could be making them poorly and helping prioritise the correct treatment.
It will also help people continue normal lives, as they won’t need to self isolate if they test negative for coronavirus – as coughs and colds become more common in the wintry weather, the Department of Health said.
Almost half a million new swab tests will be available from next week across adult care settings and laboratories.
Millions more of the tests, supplied by Oxford Nanopore, are set to be rolled out later in the year.
(Image: Asadour Guzelian)
Meanwhile, thousands of DNA test machines, which have already been used in eight London hospitals and can analyse nose swabs, will be rolled out across NHS hospitals from September.
Some 5,000 machines, supplied by DnaNudge, will provide 5.8 million tests in the coming months, the department said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly.
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as Covid-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others.”
Professor Chris Toumazou, co-founder of DnaNudge and founder of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, said: “The DnaNudge team worked with incredible speed and skill during the peak of the pandemic to deliver this highly accurate, rapid Covid-19 test, which requires absolutely no laboratory or pipettes and can be deployed anywhere with a direct sample-to-result in around just over an hour.”
