15-minute tests to be trialled in hospitals and care homes

CORONAVIRUS tests which could deliver results within 15 minutes are to be trialled in care homes and hospitals, scientists at Oxford University revealed.

Prof Gail Hayward, an associate professor at the university’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, said researchers were developing rapid saliva and swab tests which could be used to diagnose at home.

She is leading the Covid-19 National Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Platform, a national research programme evaluating the accuracy of tests in various clinical settings.

Environments in which the virus is known to be particularly active, such as care homes, are being targeted for trials in the hope they will be able to deliver results faster than in settings with a lower prevalence of the disease.

While acknowledging quick tests can be less accurate than longer ones, the scientists are looking at a range of speeds which can provide results from between 15 minutes to a “few hours maximum”. The main test used to detect Covid-19 can take up to 72 hours as it involves sending samples to labs.

It is hoped a speedier diagnosis will enable doctors to make quicker decisions on future care plans.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s programme, Prof Hayward said: “There are a wide range of tests that have been developed by our life sciences industry and more internationally. They don’t all use swabs, some of them are looking at saliva and they don’t all use the same sort of chemicals that the lab tests would need so they give us a different sort of route to getting these answers.”