Testing times in Covid-19 response

The message from the World Health Organisation’s director general could not have been more unequivocal when he declared Covid-19 ‘the defining global health crisis of our time’.

During a briefing given on March 16, 2020 Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “We cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected. We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.”

Public Health England has developed what it describes as a highly sensitive test to detect the virus, with results retuned in 24 hours. The need for more tests that produce quicker results is, however, a matter of global urgency to halt the inexorable spread of Covid-19.

The government knows this and on March 6, Bedfordshire-based Mologic said it had been awarded around £1m from a £46m fund made available to finance efforts aimed at controlling Covid-19.

On announcing the award, Mologic’s medical director, Dr Joe Fitchett, said rapid detection of the virus is important to stop its spread and to this end the company will develop a point-of-need diagnostic test device.