Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE TEST QA WEMBLEY &
Cases: Deaths: 29,474 2,352 Cases: 921,020 Deaths: 46,155
the Chemical Industries Association said: “There are reagents being manufactured and delivered to the NHS.”
Peter Openshaw from Imperial College London, one of the Government’s scientific advisers, added: “As far as I know there isn’t a great shortage of supply.” And Mr Ashworth said: “If delays in scaling up testing is lack of relevant chemicals. Why is the chemical industry saying it could make them if asked?”
The PM, who also has coronavirus, reportedly ignored offers of help from many of the UK’S leading scientific institutions to analyse test results. NHS 111 assessments online and over the phone suggest 1.7 million people in Britain may be infected.
But a new study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine suggested the current lockdown if continued will result in the outbreak fading. It found the average Covid-19 patient infects 0.6 people – meaning the total numbers will be falling.
Before the measures came in it estimated the average patient with the disease infected 2.6 others. But despite
Knowing who has the virus is crucial to slow its spread, but also to bring back NHS staff who have to self-isolate.
One study found only 15% of NHS staff in isolation were infected, so if all were tested 85% could be working.
The NHS antigen test uses a swab then lab analysis, which takes 24 hours. It only tells if a person is infected, not if they have had the virus and recovered. Testing is in hospitals, and now also in drive-through stations.
About 8,000 daily tests are being carried out and the current capacity is 12,750.
Just 2,000 NHS frontline workers, out of around 500,000, have been tested.
The Government blames a global shortage of chemical reagents and swabs and admits it could be mid-april before we reach the target of testing 25,000 people a day.
Germany tests 70,000 people a day, a strategy credited with keeping the country’s death rate low.
Health chiefs resist the idea of community testing everyone who has symptoms.
Tests will prioritise frontline health staff and those most at risk from severe illness.
The Government plans to purchase millions of antibody tests to detect if someone has already had coronavirus.
But none of the DIY fingerprick tests, which would be sold at Boots and Amazon, have been approved yet. If they don’t work properly they could cause more damage.