Coronavirus 'lighthouse lab' opens in Loughborough

PerkinElmer said the facility will add "significant additional capacity" to the testing network

A "lighthouse lab" with the capacity to process 50,000 coronavirus tests every day has opened in the East Midlands.

The laboratory in Loughborough, Leicestershire, will receive samples from drive-through centres, social care and home kits.

PerkinElmer has been chosen by the government to run the facility, which is the sixth of its kind to open.

Hopes of a coronavirus vaccine mean it is only contracted until the end of March.

Lighthouse laboratories are already operating in Milton Keynes, Cheshire, Glasgow, Cambridge and Newport.

The Loughborough facility is expecting to receive about 3,000 coronavirus test samples on its first day.

Miles Burrows, managing director of PerkinElmer, said this will slowly increase throughout December until it reaches its 50,000 a day projection.

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Mr Burrows said the lab represented, "a significant additional capacity".

"Essentially, the more capacity in the network, the greater the number of people can be tested and the faster the results will get back to those people," he added.

The laboratory in Loughborough will be open 24 hours a day

The laboratory will be open 24 hours a day and will employ 430 staff.

Fatima Omar, a biomedical scientist at the site, said the work would be "challenging" but interesting.

Fatima Omar is one of the staff working at the new coronavirus testing facility

Mike Sandys, director of public health for Leicestershire County Council, said he welcomed the lab's arrival.

Interim executive chair of the National Institute for Public Health, Baroness Dido Harding said the lab had "definitely not" come too late.

She said: "It's still going to take time for the vaccine to be rolled out.

"In the world of today, we really do need this."

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