The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is to roll out up to 450,000 rapid Covid tests across adult care settings from next week.
The LamPORE test is able to process swab and saliva samples to detect the presence of Covid-19 in 60 to 90 minutes. Current tests typically take around 48 hours to process.
DHSC said the new test has the same sensitivity as the widely used PCR swab test, but can be used to process swabs in labs, as well as on-location through ‘pop up’ labs.
The desktop GridION machine can process up to 15,000 tests a day, or the palm-sized MinION can process up to 2,000 tests a day for deployment in a near-community ‘pop-up’ lab, it added.
DHSC Secretary Matt Hanock said more of the tests will be rolled out later this year ahead of winter.
“Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly,” he added.
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as Covid-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others.”
In addition, DHSC will introduce 5,000 DNA ‘Nudgebox’ machines, supplied by DnaNudge, in all NHS hospitals in the UK to analyse DNA in nose swabs, providing a positive or negative result for Covid-19 within 90 minutes, at the point of care.
The machines will process up to 15 tests on the spot each day without the need for a laboratory.
