Coronavirus: Welsh NHS to adopt 12-minute testing kit

The Welsh Government has reached a deal to buy equipment allowing Covid-19 tests to be carried out in 12 minutes.

The contract for up to 400 devices and 450,000 tests is subject to its "successful validation".

The Scottish Government has a similar arrangement in place for 300 devices and at least 500,000 tests.

Plaid Cymru welcomed the news but argued there was a better option available.

The LumiraDX testing machines are said to be highly portable and can be used in local clinics or mobile units.

It detects the Covid-19 antigen protein from a nasal swab.

Its result time of 12 minutes is said to be considerably faster than other rapid tests currently being trialled, which produce results in an average time of 90 minutes.

The test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19 has been authorised by the US Federal Drug Administration and is said to be going through the final stages of validation for use here.

The test has already been given approval in the US

A Welsh Government spokesman said: "The Welsh Government is involved in a number of trials for rapid point of care testing and device validation for Covid-19 diagnostics.

"This includes the LumiraDX machine that tests for Covid-19 antigen and antibodies and we have secured a contract for up to 400 devices and 450,000 tests, subject to its successful validation, for use in the NHS in Wales.

"We will provide further details once the validation is complete."

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Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price welcomed the news but suggested the Welsh Government would be better off investing in a saliva test.

"The advantages of a saliva test are threefold: this test is less invasive to the patient and agrees with swab results 94% of the time," he said.

"It costs as little as £1 per sample, and the results are available within hours.

"This means a simpler, quicker, cheaper means of testing that can and should be carried out on a mass scale.

"Routine testing of everyone in Wales once a week could be transformative yet affordable."

Asked by Mr Price about the saliva test during First Minister's Questions last week, the first minister said the Welsh Government "continues to explore all these possibilities".

"It's an important judgment for government as to which [test] to endorse and not to spend a lot of money on a possibility that is rapidly overtaken by something that is emerging elsewhere," he added.