Super-fast Covid tests trialled in bid to open devastated entertainment industry

Porton Down trials may pave way for venues to reopen
Coronavirus - Wed Jan 13, 2021
‘Super-quick’ tests will enable some restrictions to be eased
PA

Super-fast Covid tests are being trialled which promise to allow Britain’s devastated entertainment and events industry to reopen in the summer, the vaccines minister signalled on Tuesday.

Nadhim Zahawi said that scientists at the top-security Porton Down laboratories in Wiltshire were working on the next generation of ultra-quick coronavirus tests.

The minister insisted that the Government would not bring in “vaccine passports” for domestic use so that people in this country could go to theatres, cinemas, nightclubs and other crowded venues.

Instead, getting tens of millions more people vaccinated and super-fast tests would pave the way to life returning far closer to normality, possibly by late summer. Mr Zahawi told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The best way is to vaccinate the adult population as fast as we can. There are new technologies in rapid testing that are constantly coming forward and being tested by our scientists at Porton Down, where it does allow you speedy testing, to be able to open some of those venues. It’s a combination of all those thing.”

Dr David Nabarro, a World Health Organisation coronavirus special envoy for Europe, also said “super-quick” tests would enable restrictions to be eased, including for some parts of the hospitality and entertainment sector.

“The secret to getting life back to some degree of normality for most of us is going to be the availability of really reliable, super-quick tests that can be done anywhere and that when they give you a result you can say ‘right that is a result I can trust’ because that will make movement, so, so much easier,” Dr Nabarro explained.

However, he also warned that people who do not get a “vaccine passport” are likely to face international travel restrictions, which could impact on plans for summer holidays.

Asked if he thought “vaccine passports” would become inevitable as a condition of international travel, Dr Nabarro, a director at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, said: “Yes, I think over time a system through which people will be able to demonstrate their immune status in relation to Covid will emerge.”

Asked about concerns that it will discriminate against people who have not been vaccinated, he added on Good Morning Britain: “Yes, I think that that is a reality.

“Those of us who have not yet been in a position to be vaccinated will perhaps not be able to travel as widely as those who have for a bit.”

However, he believes that the current situation of “extreme shortages” of vaccine will be sorted out in coming months as more vaccines come on stream and production is boosted. Mr Zahawi said “tens of millions” of coronavirus vaccine doses will be coming in March and April. He told BBC Breakfast: “Supplies are coming online, we have to reserve second doses so that is an additional requirement at the moment where supply is finite.

“But I see much greater volume in March and April, tens of millions of doses coming through.” Mr Zahawi said preliminary evidence on the effect of vaccines on coronavirus transmission was “really encouraging” but suggested the full data may not be available for weeks.

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