GLR Antigen Market Analysis UK + USA Q4 2020 (Part 2)27 Jul 2020 13:30
UPDATED JULY PLAN – Currently Conducting 4.5m tests per week in the USA
We called for rapidly expanded diagnostic testing capacity from 1 million tests per week to 3 million tests per week by June, and to 30 million tests per week by October. Today we’re at 4.5 million tests per week, but unfortunately it’s taking far too long to get to 30 million tests per week, and communities that most need them – low-income families, minorities, and highly vulnerable essential workers – find it most difficult to gain access, while elite institutions, companies, and enterprises seem to be able to access them on the private market. We need to urgently fix clinical diagnostic testing and accelerate the introduction of faster, cheaper, point-of-care screening tests to prepare for next flu season. Some say it’s impossible. Some say America has already given up. But we know it can be done, and we present here a renewed national action plan to help get there.
First, we need to massively scale up fast, cheap screening tests to identify asymptomatic Americans who are currently infected. Today the country conducts almost zero such tests, and we need at least 25 million per week for schools, health facilities, and essential workers to function safely
Today Covid-19 cases are spiking, and the trajectory in much of America is rising rapidly. In addition, we will soon enter a new cold and flu season with potentially 100 million cases of flu-like symptoms that stand to overwhelm our current testing capacity
The only alternative is more large-scale lockdowns. The price of that is too high to pay when we don’t have to, if we make smart, strategic, science-based investments now.
UK GOVT to expand testing to ~3.5m tests per week by the end of October
Monthly ~14-15m Tests
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-17-july-2020
As we approach winter, we will need to go further – not least as many more people will show Covid-like symptoms as a result of seasonal illnesses, and therefore require a test.
So, we will further increase testing capacity to at least half a million antigen tests a day – 3.5 million antigen tests a week – by the end of October.
Demand for testing is not the only challenge that winter will bring.
It is possible that the virus will be more virulent in the winter months – and it is certain that the NHS will face the usual, annual winter pressures.