RE: Future Predictions8 Apr 2020 17:53
BBC NEWS
At first, only a small number of public health laboratories were being used to do coronavirus tests.
In the past fortnight, this was extended to a further 40 NHS labs around the UK.
Now the government is saying it will start to use the lab capacity of private companies to carry out coronavirus tests.
The UK has a large pharmaceutical and biomedical industry whose capacity could "easily" allow the country to do many more tests than it is now, according to Dr Rupert Beale, who has been involved in developing a diagnostic test for coronavirus at the Francis Crick Institute, which will be made available to NHS staff in the area. But so far, this industry hasn't been tapped into, he said.
As well as labs, Health Secretary Matt Han**** said the government would now call on UK-based "pharmaceutical giants" GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca to make the reagents necessary to carry out the tests.
The UK has faced problems getting hold of the relevant reagents, which have been in high global demand.
This has been a global problem, but some countries were in a better position than others.