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VanV, if the TF test was not fully evaluated by PHE, I shudder to think what the implications are.....
gla
If the Eurofins manufacture was contaminated, the question needs to be asked where in the production process did this occur?
As the virus lives on sutfaces for several days then a major cleaning exercise is required which can only lead to further delay.
Eurofins said that the issue can be resolved by ‘proper cleaning’. What risk is there if nhs staff contracting cv19 whilst handling any of this product?
More questions for Peston?
Unfortunately more delay to nhs staff testing ...
It’s a bull excuse by the Government who are in a testing scandal. PHE/ NHS are taking tests from only 3 suppliers - NCYT being one of them (down from 19 potentials).
Interesting comment "Not as efficient".
Suerly, 90-120 minutes is the fastest PCR eith 100% conformance with positive test cases?
Sounds like someone is telling porkies.
Clarification required from Peston?
Looks like the government are not telling it as it is......hmmm !
Part 3:
Novacyt said it has sold £1.4million worth of tests to India alone, while countries in the Middle East have bought another £1.6million worth.
It is ramping up production with the help of Manchester-based Yourgene and says it will soon be capable of producing four million tests per month.
Novacyt is one of several organisations working with health authorities to roll out wider testing for the coronavirus.
Last week the Government said it was also working with dozens of universities, research institutes and companies to create three new ‘hub laboratories’ to supplement testing already being carried out.
Test makers Randox and Thermo Fisher are involved in these efforts, as well as Amazon, Royal Mail, Boots and the Wellcome Trust.
Universities have donated testing machines and volunteered staff to work in the new facilities, with hopes it will help ramp up the UK testing regime.
There are separate efforts as well to develop so-called rapid tests that do not need to be carried out in laboratories, although PHE is still reviewing these and has not yet recommended them for widespread use.
The World Health Organisation has called on countries to ‘test, test, test’, saying it is the best way to track the coronavirus outbreak and help bring down infection rates.
Cabinet office minister Michael Gove said the Government was increasing the amount of testing.
But during a daily Press conference, he admitted: ‘One of the constraints on our capacity to increase testing overall is the supply of the specific reagents, the specific chemicals that are needed in order to make sure that tests are reliable.’
Last night the Department of Health suggested the tests provided by Novacyt were not as efficient as those being offered by other companies.
They also claimed that the tests wouldn’t avoid the issue of the shortage of chemical reagents, as highlighted by the Government.
Part 2:
This included staff available to carry out testing as well as the need for chemicals, he said. But last night a Public Health England (PHE) spokesman claimed Novacyt was not providing more tests because it was ‘not able to offer the guaranteed continuity of supply we were looking for’.
Ministers are battling to increase testing to 25,000 patients per day by mid-April, but figures remained below 10,000 per day last weekend.
Mr Neophytou said: ‘Even if we delivered ten times the number of kits to the Government, the limiting factor is still capacity of testing and that comes more and more under strain if laboratory staff go into self-isolation.
‘A huge lab could also be brought below capacity if you do not have the consumables and instruments you need to run the tests.
‘We are supplying 21 hospitals in the UK. Some of those serve other hospitals across the country. Some do not have the internal capacity to do these tests.
‘So the number of testing kits is not truly representative of what the actual testing capacity of the country is at the moment.’
Novacyt said it is currently supplying 21 NHS hospitals with Covid-19 tests, which are processed by experts in labs.
It is in discussions with PHE about providing more tests, Mr Neophytou said. However, orders for its kit – which can return test results in two hours – have surged internationally, with regulators in the US, Argentina, the Philippines and Indonesia all fast-tracking the product for use by medical professionals.
Part 1:
UK labs 'can't cope' with mass coronavirus testing, meaning millions of British-made swabbing kits are being sold OVERSEASBy Matt Oliver for the Daily MailA British firm producing millions of pounds worth of coronavirus tests is selling most of them abroad as the UK doesn’t have enough laboratories to use them.
Novacyt has made £17.8million selling its testing equipment to more than 80 countries via its Southampton-based subsidiary Primerdesign.But only £1million worth has been sold to the UK, raising questions about why Britain is not buying more at a time when there are global shortages of tests.When asked why the UK had not bought more kits and ramped up testing more quickly, Novacyt group marketing manager Achilleas Neophytou claimed UK laboratory capacity was a ‘limiting factor’.