Coronavirus (COVID 19)—UK government partnership with rapid test manufacturers

Article summary

The UK government has announced that it has secured contracts with two British manufacturers, Omega Diagnostics and Global Access Diagnostic, for the supply of coronavirus (COVID-19) rapid lateral flow tests. The agreed contracts provide for a manufacturing capacity of up to 200 million lateral flow tests, detecting positive cases of coronavirus in under 30 minutes. It will help create more than 500 jobs across the UK and will support the government’s plans to carefully ease coronavirus restrictions. Omega Diagnostics and Global Access Diagnostics will each have the capacity to produce approximately 2 million tests per week, by the end of May 2021. This boost in testing will help scale up the government’s rapid lateral flow testing programme across the country and help break the chain of transmission.