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Universities enlisted in drive to up tests

Government doubles down on Covid-19 detection following criticism and confusion over UK strategy

Universities, businesses, and the National Health Service have been enlisted in a government drive to increase coronavirus tests to 100,000 a day in England by the end of April.

The plan—outlined by health secretary Matt Hancock on 2 April—follows weeks of heavy criticism over one of the most crucial science and policy questions raised by the coronavirus pandemic.

World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had one key message to nations fighting Covid-19 back on 16 March: “test, test, test”. Other countries have followed this mantra with Germany now carrying out around 50,000 tests daily, for example.

But the UK strategy has been mired in confusion. An initial plan calling for detection of early cases was overtaken by an announcement on 12 March that only suspected cases in hospitals would be tested. This was overturned a few days later by new plans including community-based testing.

The country has struggled to ramp up the number of tests ever since. Even many frontline National Health Service (NHS) workers cannot get tested, with overall testing capacity hovering around 10,000 a day, and even fewer being conducted. 

The prime minister has announced plans to get to 250,000 tests a day, a longer-term target that Hancock said the government is still aiming to hit. Hancock also said the government has bought 17.5 million tests, “subject to them working”, but said “early results of some…have not performed well”.

The government has said a lack of vital chemicals is part of the problem. But the Chemical Industries Association says that “while there is of course an escalating demand, there are reagents being manufactured and delivered to the NHS”.

The government has announced plans to work with companies, universities and the Wellcome Trust to scale up testing. It said on 27 March that “dozens of universities, research institutes and companies” were lending equipment to three new national ‘hub laboratories’ to undertake the work.

Some academics, such as Julian Peto, a statistician and epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, have suggested university and commercial labs should undertake Covid-19 tests. 

But others are sceptical. “There are multiple issues with setting up new diagnostic testing capacity outside of regular diagnostic laboratories,” said Stephen Baker, professor of molecular microbiology at the University of Cambridge. “This is not an overnight solution.” 

This article also appeared in Research Fortnight