Test and Trace trials ‘groundbreaking’ new technology to detect Covid mutations
NHS Test and Trace has begun trials of a “groundbreaking” new variant test that can hunt down Covid mutations and return results within 48 hours, the health secretary has announced.
The tests could potentially halve the time it takes to identify whether a positive coronavirus sample contains a variant of concern, which usually take around five days for genomic sequencing.
It means positive cases of Covid mutations will be contacted more quickly, thereby slowing the spread of new variants.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the genotype assay testing would help “rapidly identify variant cases and trace contacts quicker than ever before, helping stop outbreaks in their tracks and ensuring we can continue to follow the roadmap we have set out to get back to normal life.”
Health minister Lord Bethell added that the new variant tests will “accelerate our knowledge and understanding of variants of concern and halt their spread across the country.”
The Prime Minister’s roadmap for leaving lockdown hinges on various conditions being met, including the threat of new variants being kept at bay.
Ten variants are currently being monitored by the government, four of which were first detected in the UK. They include the Kent Covid variant, which was first identified in September last year and is now Britain’s dominant strain of coronavirus.
Research published earlier this month in the British Medical Journal suggested that the Kent mutation may be around 64 per cent more lethal compared to previous Covid variants.
However, the Astrazeneca, Pfizer and Novavax vaccines are all thought to be effective in protecting against the new strain, also known as the B117 variant.
Concerns have now turned to the South Africa variant, after trials of the Astrazeneca vaccine performed by the University of Oxford found it provided only limited protection against mild and moderate disease from the new strain.
More than 300 cases of the South African variant have been identified in the UK so far, alongside 12 of a new Manaus variant, which is thought to be partially resistant to available vaccines.
The government has already introduced several procedures to limit the spread of new Covid mutations, including surge testing, the hotel quarantine scheme and enhanced contact tracing.
Last month’s discovery of six new cases of the Manaus variant, also known as the P1 variant, sparked a nationwide hunt for the individual behind one of the positive tests.
The missing case was eventually traced back to Croydon after a week-long search. The individual had recently travelled back to the UK from Brazil, and had been quarantining with their family at home in London.