ONE BIG QUESTION.. AND AN ANSWER IN MINUTES

Walking into Quotient’s glass-fronted facility on the outskirts of Penicuik feels a bit like gatecrashing Tony Stark’s Iron Man laboratory.

After being swiped through security, I found dozens of scientists in white coats, masks and goggles working studiously among racks of test tubes, centrifuge machines and blood analysis computers.

I was here to become one of the first people in Scotland to receive the firm’s ground-breaking coronavirus antibody test.

Blood was taken and plasma separated before a sample was loaded on to a patented MosaiQ microarray cartridge and fed into a huge diagnostics machine capable of delivering thousands of results a day.

After a short wait, a screen on the side of the unit informed me that I had not, as yet, contracted coronavirus and so would not have antibodies likely to give me immunity.

It was a slightly disorientating experience to find myself disappointed not to have been infected by a deadly virus. If I had been positive, it would most likely have meant that – social distancing rules notwithstanding – I could safely return to life as it was before Covid-19 struck. Now

I know I could still catch the virus and pass it on, resulting in myself or someone I come into contact with becoming seriously ill.

It is not difficult to see the massive potential using this system on a society-wide basis could have in the fight against Covid-19.

Right back at the beginning of the crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson predicted antibody testing technology would be “game-changing” when it became available.

Now that it is available, the question has become how quickly governments can roll it out and harness its potential to help speed up a safe return to normality.