Tag: infection rates

Roasted Test-Nuts: How to Save Christmas

December 14, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Perhaps, you’ve been avoiding the news as much as you can – and who can blame you? It seems to be just endless doom and gloom. You’re just trying to enjoy a Christmas season that you had hoped would mark an end to a terrible year. Of course, you know that isn’t true anymore but if we’re not careful, all of our hopes will seem dismally ironic by the time 2020 is done. 

So, what do you need to know? Well, the upshot is that infection rates are rising pretty uniformly across the country, although particularly in the South-East. The R-rate is not as menacing as it was before the lockdown but we’re hovering around 1, i.e. the threshold that both lockdowns were intended to stop us from going over. For small businesses, any rise in the R-rate in their zone is a problem, threatening a change in Tier which if you’re currently managing to stay open, will probably mean that you’ll have to close. Rumours about widespread changes to the status of a number of areas of the UK have been escalating. Seemingly, London is heading for Tier 3 with large segments of the South-East to follow. Apologies for the doomsday forecasts but it’s over now.

Although it might not seem that way, these projections are not set in stone. There is a simple way to help prevent closures and further lockdowns: widespread rapid testing.

Recently, Public Health England have certified a number of rapid tests. To receive accreditation, these tests have to meet world-leading standards. This means exceptionally high levels of reliability.

It must be reiterated that the exceptional reliability of these rapid tests does not mean that they perform the same function as other tests for COVID-19. For example, the tests you will receive from the NHS are PCR tests. These tests are the gold-standard for identifying traces of COVID-19 in the body. However, a certain amount of viral material must be present in the body before a person can spread the disease. Government-accredited rapid tests reliably identify if such an amount is present. 

In the PHE’s evaluation, Sir John Bell, Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said of these tests: “They identify those who are likely to spread the disease and when used systematically in mass testing could reduce transmission by 90%.”

They could reduce transmission by 90%. What might that do for our Christmases, all of us who have to weigh up the risks of spending time with family that we might not have been able to see, let alone hug, for nearly a year now? Monitoring yourself and those you hope to spend time with this Christmas with rapid tests is the best – and increasingly it looks like it may be the only – way to save Christmas and wave an eager goodbye to a terrible year. 

If you are interested in rapid tests for yourself or your workplace, take a look at our online shop, where you’ll find our range of rapid tests which are on the path to accreditation.

Madrid Goes Rapid: How Spain Is Fighting Its Second Wave

October 12, 2020 / / 0 Comments

A number of European countries have been hit by a second wave of COVID-19 infections – including, unfortunately, the UK – but Spain has been hit the hardest. Today, the Prime Minister will lay out his plans for the next stage of the UK’s response, rumoured to include a ‘three-tiered lockdown system’ that will devolve greater powers to local government, but chances are it won’t include the sorts of measures that the Spanish government are pursuing in infection-hotspots like Madrid. 

Madrid has become one of the first major cities in the world to attempt rapid testing on a large scale. In certain neighbourhoods with climbing infection rates, like Entrevías, residents are contacted via text to attend a drop-in clinic. Local authorities intend to test as many people as possible in these areas. When residents arrive at the clinic, an external temperature reading is taken with a non-contact infrared thermometer (like the one included in our Return2Work kit).

This is an unexpected feature of the scheme but the logic is clear. Taking the patient’s temperature will give the authorities information about their condition which might not be captured by the rapid test. For example, the patient may return a negative test but still have a temperature indicative of infection, meaning that the patient may indeed have COVID-19 but as yet remains non-contagious. This may mean that they will have to return the following day for another rapid test to track their progress, as well as receiving a more comprehensive PCR test from a local hospital to see if they have contracted a smaller amount of COVID-19. It also means that the margin for error in the test’s 93% accuracy-rate might be curbed by giving an indication as to when a patient might have received a false negative.

Once inside the drop-in clinic, a nasal swab is taken by a trained volunteer, placed in the buffer solution to settle and then squeezed onto the cassette. The resident then waits just 15 minutes for the results. Depending on the result, the resident may be free to return to work or must self-isolate – which potentially means that those they live or have had significant contact with must do so, as well. 

We will have to watch cautiously over the next few weeks to see whether this programme is able to curb the infection rates in Madrid. But by any reasonable estimate, it seems highly likely to do so. With these tests being so cheap at just €5 (or £4.50), the authorities can test huge numbers of people, detecting infectious residents as soon as possible, even if they are asymptomatic. Similarly, it also identifies safe residents, allowing local business to continue its recovery where possible, so that those who have to self-isolate are supported by a network of those who currently do not. 

It’s important to remember this, however: we have known that such a scheme was possible for months. Britain should have been the first to implement one, not Spain. 

We must be next.

To view our range of products for COVID-19 protection, including our rapid test kits, take a look at our online shop. 

Testing Times: Why There’s a Testing Shortage and How to Fix It

September 18, 2020 / / 0 Comments

On Tuesday, the BBC Breakfast ran a report on the government’s COVID-19 testing initiatives in the UK. It was pretty damning.

The main take-away from the report was the link between test shortages and staff shortages. This link should be considered from two perspectives. Firstly, test shortages in the NHS have forced Trusts to cut down on staff and volunteers who are not needed. Of course, this decision has only increased the workload for remaining staff – for example, NHS technicians processing the tests have complained about the lack of staff, claiming that it has only aggravated extant problems and contributed to increased waiting times for patients. Relatedly, known problems with the accessibility of drop-in test centres have been deepened by the shortage, with some patients being forced to drive up to 100 miles to find an operative centre. 

Secondly, such failures within the NHS have had rather troubling effects on the general population’s ability to work. Increased waiting times and lack of accessibility, all caused by or intensified by the general lack of tests, have meant that those with symptoms who have been requested by their workplace to get tested will spend longer off work. Paired with the localised lockdowns in various areas of the country, these hiatuses will be hindering what had previously appeared to be a somewhat promising economic recovery. 

In their desperation to return to work, many Britons have turned to the private sector. Nevertheless, the vast majority of these tests remain priced outside the average person’s budget, mostly because of the type of tests available. 

However, rapid testing, which has seen an upsurge in support from the scientific community in recent months, is cheap, and it delivers results in just 15 minutes – a time to which no other type of COVID-19 test even comes close.

For a number of months on this blog, I have been advocating for the NHS to switch to rapid testing. Rapid testing has an advantage over PCR testing in all the areas that the latter is currently failing. Firstly, rapid tests can be mass produced on a superior scale at lower costs. Secondly, the test does not require expert processing, freeing up the overworked laboratory technicians that currently keep the PCR testing programme running. This also means that far more tests can be done by the patients themselves at home, easing the pressure on drop-in centres. 

If these reforms could be implemented, we might see an end to unnecessarily long wait times and a rejuvenated NHS, better equipped to deal with the ongoing pandemic. If we are to continue our steady recovery from lockdown, it seems essential that this is done, and quick. 

If you are in need of a rapid test, take a look at our product range on our website. 

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