RE: Where testing gets tested, Porton Down19 Aug 2020 14:12
Further detail re Porton Down:
"12:20
Analysis: Han**** sets another ambitious testing aim
Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News
Health Secretary Matt Han**** has said the UK government is aiming to “ramp up” rapid-turnaround, population-wide testing “over the remainder of this year”.
The new tests are being assessed for reliability at government labs in Porton Down. They are potentially easier to administer and much quicker than the current tests – which have to be sent to a lab and can take a day to turn around.
Some of the tests being assessed can provide results in minutes. And some test saliva instead of requiring a swab from the back of the throat.
Han****’s aim is to have a system where anyone can tests themselves on a regular basis – potentially each day.
Such a regime would do away with the need for quarantine and fewer people would need to self-isolate for several days.
If the tests are found to be reliable, the health secretary's challenge will be to transform his enthusiasm for the technology into an effective and reliable system – and roll it out to the entire population.
His promise to ramp it up over the remainder of the year is yet another ambitious target he has set for his department.
It comes on top of an expansion of the Office for National Statistics' Infection Survey, which monitors how many people are infected with Covid-19 in England."