RE: Worth a read10 Dec 2020 17:36
Our achievements to date
Since our service was set up, we have:
• Met our testing capacity target of 500,000 tests a day by the end of October, having
processed 41 million tests overall, enabling us to identify over 1.1 million people who
have the virus and helping ensure they and their contacts self-isolate to break chains
of transmission
Test and Trace Business Plan
18
• Increased testing accessibility, by making the digital test booking journey faster and
easier as well as piloting GP and pharmacy testing routes
• Introduced new testing technologies, including LAMP and rapid lateral flow device
tests – supplementing PCR tests with new, rapid turnaround options
• Protected our health and social care settings by testing hospital patients on admission,
care home staff on a weekly basis, and care home residents every 28 days. We have
reduced the turnaround time of results for those tested in social care from over 100
hours in September to an average of 44 hours today – saving lives by breaking chains
of transmission where vulnerability to the virus is highest
• Established over 700 local testing sites (see graphic) to provide more choices and
make testing easier, decreasing the average distance travelled to access a test to 2.4
miles