No Christmas break for team keeping up the Covid battle ‘We shouldn’t be letting our guard down’
MOST people will have a welldeserved break over Christmas and New Year as they say farewell to what has undoubtedly been a tumultuous 2020.
But for some residents including doctors, care workers, midwives and nurses, they will be pulling lengthy shifts over the holidays.
And this year more than ever, the appreciation is also being extended to include the scientists who have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic, and who are set to continue in their resolve to keep us safe over the festive period.
For the scientists at Cheshire’s Lighthouse Lab at Alderley Park in Nether Alderley, just outside Macclesfield, December 25, for example, was business as usual.
They were working to process the thousands of coronavirus samples the site receives daily, a key component of the government’s Covid-19 testing programme in the battle against the virus.
The scientists at Alderley Park can process more than 50,000 samples in a day.
Alongside 70 colleagues, one scientist who was due to be working at the lab on Christmas Day is Dr Cai Astley.
As a bioscience lead at the site, Cai joined the lab from his PhD in Nanomedicine and Vascular Pathology from The Manchester Metropolitan University earlier in the year to support the team in testing Covid samples.
He said: “Covid doesn’t take a break over Christmas, which is why we shouldn’t be letting our guard down over the festive period in the fight against Covid.
“Although I’ll be missing out this year, it’ll be a small sacrifice to pay if it means we can continue to process the Covid samples to meet demand over the Christmas period.
“Doctors and nurses were on the front line on the 25th battling the effects of Covid, and we did exactly the same, helping to play our bit in the government’s testing programme.”
The Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab was set up from scratch in March, when 1,000 individuals from across the national life sciences sector joined to volunteer their time in battling the pandemic.
Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) runs the
Lighthouse Lab on a nonfor-profit basis following a request from the Department for Health to rapidly expand Covid-19 testing.
Cai continued: “There’s over 500 staff members at the site sampling up to 50,000 tests a day and we’ve just recently processed our 5 millionth sample.
“We’ve got to where we are through the hard work and dogged determination of the team, which would have been an impossible achievement were it not for their ethos and commitment to help eradicate Covid.
“It’ll be tough being without family this year, but all the more worth it if it will enable me to see more family members next year.”
Mark Wigglesworth, site director at the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, said: “With hundreds of volunteers answering the initial call to action here at Alderley Park, we were astounded by the sheer number of volunteers who stepped forward at the start of the year to dedicate their time and energy towards a common goal; how the application of technology and science can contribute towards the eradication of the terrible pandemic we’ve all had to endure this year.
”I’d like to show my appreciation to the entire team for their hard work this year.”