NEW COVID-19 TESTING PROGRAMME BEGINS AT INC RETAIL
- Government-backed mass testing programme to begin at Inc Retail stores across U.K to help protect people most at risk
• Partnership between Inc Retail and Department of Health and Social Care to use Rapid Testing working towards returning to life as normal as possible.
A rapid testing programme is launching at Chop’d & KNOMO stores across the country as part of the Government’s UK-wide continuing drive to increase the availability of testing.
Around one in three people who are infected with Covid-19 have no symptoms so could be spreading the disease without knowing it. Broadening testing to identify those showing no symptoms will mean finding positive cases more quickly and break chains of transmission.
With its targeted approach, this programme aims to reduce the prevalence of the virus in the highest risk areas.
From the start of the pandemic, the Government has been working around the clock with a range of partners to fight coronavirus.
Health Minister Lord Bethell said:
“I’m delighted that Inc Retail and its brands, Chop’d & KNOMO are working with us to use the latest technology in their stores, and I look forward to seeing the fruits of their labour, both in helping target the virus nationally and helping find ways to roll this technology out further.”
“We’ve already come so far since first setting up a national testing programme at an unprecedented pace to help counter COVID-19, but we continue to strive to go further, faster.
“Rapid testing technologies hold the key to the next phase of our ambition to see testing available to people across the country.
Dan Shaw, Inc Retail MD said:
We’re delighted to be working with the Department of Health and Social Care to use the innovative Rapid Testing kits, which is important in helping us to return to normality as quickly as possible. I’m proud of our teams across the U.K who have worked hard to stay safe throughout the past 12 months, and now as we begin to open our office and stores, I feel confident that Inc Retail can continue to keep our employees safe as we welcome customers new and old into our stores once more.
The use of multiple testing technologies could significantly improve the detection of positive cases, so people can isolate themselves and prevent the spread of the disease. Using rapid-turnaround lateral flow tests will help the government to protect those at high risk, find the virus and help enable us to go back to as normal a way of life as possible.
For media enquiries about the mass testing programme please contact the DHSC media centre.
NOTES TO EDITORS
- See latest testing statistics here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
- Lateral flow devices (LFDs) – or rapid tests – used by the UK government go through a rigorous evaluation by the country’s leading scientists.
- LFDs detect cases with high levels of virus, making them effective in finding individuals who are the most likely to transmit the disease, including those not
showing symptoms.
- Extensive clinical evaluation from Public Health England and the University of Oxford show lateral flow tests are specific and sensitive enough to be
deployed for mass testing, including for asymptomatic people. The Oxford University and Public Health evaluation is available here: