Virus test kit components ‘infected’
Laboratories warned to expect further delays as Britain lags behind other countries in testing
‘It’s not clear why we don’t have the capacity, and why we appear to be in a worse position than other countries’
BRITAIN’S attempt to ramp up mass coronavirus testing was dealt a blow when key components ordered from overseas were found to be contaminated with coronavirus, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Laboratories in the UK were yesterday warned to expect delays after traces of the virus were detected in parts due for delivery.
Ministers and public health chiefs were facing questions over why Britain’s testing capacity appeared to be lagging behind other nations. To accelerate production, the Government enlisted private firms to produce thousands of kits to make mass testing available within weeks.
But one supplier, Luxembourgbased Eurofins, sent an email yesterday to government laboratories warning that a delivery of key components called “probes and primers” had been contaminated. Last night the firm admitted there had been “an issue” but insisted other private providers had suffered the same problem.
Exactly how the contamination occurred is unclear, but senior health sources said the delay would not significantly affect the testing programme.
Meanwhile, Downing Street claimed Public Health England had given ministers incorrect information on the number of coronavirus tests conducted, after Michael Gove claimed on Sunday that 10,000 had been completed.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman yesterday had to clarify that Mr Gove had been referring to the capacity available rather than the actual number completed, which was lower.
Mr Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, stated the Government’s target of 10,000 tests per day had been hit, with ministers pushing for 25,000 by mid-april. But only 8,278 tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday, well below Mr Gove’s claim.
Yesterday, Helen Whately, the health minister, added to the uncertainty when she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We have achieved the capacity to have 10,000 tests a day. The actual number tested on the day in question was, I think, around 7,000.” PHE released figures minutes later stating, between Friday and Saturday morning, 9,114 tests had been completed.
PHE also stated “testing capacity for patient care stands at 10,949 a day”, prompting questions as to whether, despite overwhelming demand, health services had failed to carry out the maximum number of tests available. Last night Whitehall sources said the error occurred because PHE failed to make clear to ministers the distinction between the capacity available and the number actually completed.
Government sources said the discrepancy was caused partly by hospitals not knowing at the start of each day how many people would need to be tested, and holding back capacity to ensure they did not run out of tests.
The Telegraph also understands that Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, privately expressed frustration that testing was not being carried out at full capacity and ordered any excess tests to be used on NHS staff.
Sir Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, said roll-out of testing would begin this week after staff were sampled at the weekend. On March 11 officials announced they had carried out 25,000 tests and was aiming for 10,000 a day – a target yet to be reached. Ministers hope a new antibody test that determines if someone has previously contracted the virus will be ready within weeks.
Food delivery company Ocado has ordered 100,000 Covid-19 testing kits for staff but has promised to hand them to the NHS if required. It paid £1.5million for the kits, with 40,000 already delivered and a further 60,000 to come, while celebrities have been paying up to £375 for private tests.
Experts yesterday asked why Britain was lagging so far behind in the mass testing of the population.
Prof Graham Medley, head of SPI-M, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, which advises the Government, said the country simply did not have enough “people and machines” to ramp up capacity.
“We are trying to do things that are beyond any single research laboratory,” he said. “We need more PCR machines which are expensive and need to be maintained. South Korea have warehouses full of testing kits and machines, and lots of people trained and ready to go. When SARS and MERS came along, they knew they needed it.
“Germany just appears to have been better prepared than us. It would have been a very difficult political decision to spend that kind of money on things that might never have been needed.”
When the disease first emerged, the Government chose to use just one facility – at Colindale in north London. Now health authorities have enlisted 11 more as well as universities and hospitals.
To increase capacity, PHE has taken on volunteers including university students to help in laboratories.
Greg Clark, the former Conservative business secretary and chairman of the House of Commons science select committee investigating the Government’s response to Covid-19, asked why Britain had been so slow to bring in more laboratories ramp up production. He also asked why PHE only had 290 people working on contact tracing, unlike nations such as South Korea, where tracing infected people had been a key part of the strategy. “It doesn’t make sense. We need to know where the disease is going,” he said.
A PHE spokesman said: “Covid-19 only started to emerge at the beginning of the year and since then PHE has managed to rapidly develop, validate and deliver an accurate test. PHE has expanded to 12 other testing sites in England and supported the NHS to start testing at greater capacity. This is the fastest deployment of a novel test to PHE and NHS labs in recent history, including swine flu in 2009.”
A spokesman for Eurofins said: “Delays in some orders may occur if a product may not meet the quality or purity criteria. Those problems can be resolved by proper cleaning and production segregation procedures.”