Essential workers and the most vulnerable will receive increased
access to coronavirus tests after the government unveiled a
network of mobile testing units to travel where there is
significant demand, including care homes, police stations and
prisons.
The number of new mobile units is being scaled up after a
successful pilot last week, which saw Department of Health
vehicles refitted to fully functioning testing sites, following a
design developed by the Royal Engineers of the British Army.
Today, there are eight existing mobile units carrying out tests
across the country, including in Salisbury, Southport and
Teesside.
Mobile facilities can be set up in under 20 minutes, allowing the
testing of hundreds of people each day and are now travelling to
those most in need and hard to reach. Specially trained Armed
Forces personnel will collect swabs at the mobile sites, before
they are sent to mega-labs for processing. Those tested will
receive results within 48 hours.
Rapid expansion of a network of mobile test units is now
underway, with new units being fielded in the coming weeks and at
least 96 ready to be deployed by the start of May.
This follows the announcement last week that other frontline
workers would join the priority list for coronavirus testing,
alongside the existing commitment to make sure patients and NHS
staff are tested for the virus.
New mobile sites will travel to frontline workers in places
including:
-
Care homes
-
Police stations
-
Prisons
-
Benefits centres
-
Fire and rescue services
Testing Minister
said:
“Everyone who needs a coronavirus test should be able to have
access to one. New mobile testing units will travel the country
to provide vital frontline workers with tests so those testing
negative to safely return to work.
“We have built up capacity in the system with new testing
facilities backed by Britain’s world-class scientists and
industry partners. This means more workers can know if they have
coronavirus if they have been demonstrating symptoms.
“Testing is key in our battle against coronavirus. We now have
the ability to provide more people with the certainty they need
to get back to the front line when it is safe to do so.”
Defence Secretary said:
“Our Armed Forces will help deliver testing to where it’s most
needed, using a network of up to 96 mobile units that will be
rolled out in the coming weeks. They will make sure our care
sector get the testing required to remain in the frontline of the
fight against this pandemic.”
National Testing Coordinator John Newton said:
“Across the country we are creating new infrastructure to rapidly
increase our capacity to test for coronavirus. New mobile testing
units will help us achieve our goal of 100,000 coronavirus tests
a day, providing tests to vital frontline workers wherever they
need them.
“In a matter of weeks we have worked with Britain’s leading
scientists, academics and industry partners to build scores of
new testing facilities and Britain’s largest network of
diagnostic labs in history. Each day we are delivering more
coronavirus tests, and allowing more frontline staff testing
negative for the virus to safely return to work.”
The Government’s objective is to deploy 96 mobile testing units
during the month of May – 92 will be staffed by the Armed Forces
and a further four, located in Northern Ireland, will be operated
by civilian contractors.
Earlier this month the Health Secretary announced the UK government’s
5-pillar plan to rapidly scale up coronavirus testing across the
UK. The new 5-pillar plan outlines the ambitions to:
- Pillar 1: Scale up swab testing in PHE labs and NHS hospitals
for those with a medical need and the most critical workers to
25,000 a day in England, with the aligned testing strategies of
the NHS in the Devolved Administrations benefiting from PHE’s
partnership with Roche through a central UK allocation mechanism
- Pillar 2: Deliver increased commercial swab testing for
critical key workers in the NHS across the UK, before then
expanding to key workers in other sectors. There are now more
than 30 drive-through sites collecting these samples across the
UK.
- Pillar 3: Develop blood testing to help know if people across
the UK have the right antibodies and so have high levels of
immunity to coronavirus
- Pillar 4: Conduct UK-wide surveillance testing to learn more
about the spread of the disease and help develop new tests and
treatments
- Pillar 5: Create a new National Effort for testing, to build
a mass-testing capacity for the UK at a completely new scale.
