Coronavirus 90-minute test to be rolled out in care homes

A new test that can detect COVID-19 and flu, and deliver test results within 90 minutes, is to be rolled out in care homes from next week.

The rapid LamPORE swab tests do not need to be sent to a laboratory. Credit: Shutterstock

Able to distinguish between COVID-19 and other seasonal illnesses, the new test relies on a saliva sample, with a swab taken of saliva from a person's mouth.

Some 450,000 LamPORE swab tests developed by Oxford Nanopore, a biotech company, will be available from next week in care homes.

With a 90-minute turnaround time, the new tests are an improvement on the 48 hour wait for test results faced by many people currently.

The tests do not have to be sent off to a lab, which means the processing times are much quicker.

Matt Hancock: New tests 'break chains of transmission quickly'

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new COVID-19 tests would from 10 August “provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly”.

"The fact that these tests can detect flu as well COVID-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others."

Ministers say millions of tests will be available end of the year.

The announcement comes as government delays its own target to regularly test all care home staff and residents to identify those individuals who are infected but do not show COVID-19 symptoms.

Regular testing of care home residents and staff was meant to have started on 6 July but the government has said this might not be in place until the first week of September.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "A combination of factors have meant that a more limited number of testing kits, predominantly used in care homes, are currently available for asymptomatic re-testing and we are working round the clock with providers to restore capacity."