Shocking read 😳

[maisie15]

If this is true... Northern Ireland firm selling Covid-19 testing kits around the world but NHS has placed no orders

belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news...

[Hidden]

There could even be another supplier NHS is using

Although I would wonder why the Northern Ireland Company has not offered such kits to the NHS staff and reduced cost

[Hidden]

derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/d...

A Derby company says it has seen a surge in demand for its £6 coronavirus test kits.

SureScreen Diagnostics launched the product earlier this month.

The test kits check a person's blood via a finger prick and reveals "within 10 minutes" whether they have contracted Covid-19, reports Business Live.

According to the firm, the new test shows up coronavirus between three to seven days after infection – before symptoms begin to appear.

With an accuracy of 98.7% the test kits have been validated in China and are already being used in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Turkey, UAE, Kuwait and Oman.

Around 175,000 tests have been conducted with the SureScreen kit so far, with potential orders for over two million over the next month.

Private companies are now moving to test their staff and one multi-national oil and gas firm and a cruise liner firm have ordered the test kits.

Director David Campbell said: “I’ve only seen one other similar test which is made in China and only tests for one biomarker, whereas ours screens for two which increases the accuracy greatly (which can be seen in the clinical data.)

“Most test kits are a swab, which is used to sample sputum (oral mucous), which then gets sent back to the laboratory.

“This takes time and cost, and, meanwhile, the individual has to self-isolate.

David Campbell, director at Surescreen Diagnostics (Image: PA / Jacob King)

“Our key differentiator is the speed and ease of use at the patient side without the need for big equipment or unnecessary isolation. Plus it’s a fraction of the cost against lab screening.

“It’s a product that is ready to go with clinical data behind it and already compared against real-world samples.”

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SureScreen has said it has the capacity to produce up to 500,000 of the tests every week – and believes it could be a “game-changer” when it comes to the handling of the coronavirus crisis.

[Tugun in reply to Hidden]

Wow! Very Interesting.

[Superzob]

I believe this is the antibody test which the government is proposing to use primarily to clear people who have been infected, because they are no longer contagious. This is particularly important with a virus which may show only mild symptoms which the infected person might miss.

From the TV programme I saw, the manufacturers were saying that you need to be infected for 3 days before the antibodies show up, which means you might have infected others in the meantime. Contrary to the Derby Telegrsph article, I would have thought that symptoms would have shown before then, because the innate immune response (which gives you the symptoms) would operate before the adaptive immune response which produces the antibodies - but I stand to be corrected on that point.