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Quote:We can mass test the UK out of Covid lockdowns,’ says Innova
The boss of the world’s biggest supplier of rapid Covid-19 tests has declared that frequent mass testing is feasible and could be the key to unlocking the economy.
Daniel Elliott, of Innova Medical Group, said the UK was his biggest customer, with hundreds of millions of tests already delivered and a total of one billion expected by the middle of next month.
The UK has agreed to buy at least £2.8 billion of Innova’s rapid lateral flow test kits, which give a result within 30 minutes. Under the Operation Moonshot strategy, the government plans to use targeted mass testing in the public sector to monitor infection rates and stop asymptomatic spread.
Elliott, who is scaling up production to 50 million tests a day, said about half of Innova’s customers were companies that want to protect employees in the workplace.
“There’s a significant amount in warehouses around the country,” he said. “Now it’s going to be schools, and, ultimately, opening up the country in other ways — haircuts, restaurants and things like that.”
It is understood that the investment bank Citigroup is using Innova’s tests in America and is preparing to test staff at its tower in London’s Canary Wharf, where about 6,000 worked before the pandemic.
James Bardrick, Citi’s UK chief, said a pilot scheme would begin tomorrow for people who are unable to work from home and are approved to go into the office. The scheme will be voluntary.
“Other banks are following and we’re in discussions with more,” said Elliott.
Innova’s optimism on UK test numbers comes as the mood among businesses appears to be shifting. Last month, David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said home working was “not a new normal”, and Barclays boss Jes Staley said it was “getting old”.
In an interview in The Sunday Times today, Dominic Blakemore, chief executive of catering giant Compass, says: “The mood is generally that people want to be in the office and together more than they are apart.”
Elliott said Innova was delivering “millions of tests to the UK every single day”, and it was the intention of the government to eventually roll them out to sports events, concerts and leisure venues.
Innova, which is based in California and owned by the private equity firm Pasaca Capital, is in discussions with pharmacy chains in the UK to sell direct to consumers. It is building a factory in this country to satisfy demand.
Elliott said a mass-testing strategy was “most protective in businesses like personal care, pubs, clubs and a lot of events ... where close contact in enclosed spaces can’t be avoided”.
In the past, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency raised concerns about lateral flow tests. However, it issued an exceptional-use authorization in December permitting NHS Test and Trace to send Innova’s kits to asymptomatic people for self-testing.
“Eventually the pandemic will end in some fashion and we’ll have to do regular testing for some period of time,” said Elliott. “Lots of things affect the results but a good rule of thumb is to test as many people as possible twice a week.
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