Coronavirus: Mass testing begins in Liverpool amid fears rapid test technology is 'missing cases'

A mass testing pilot of the government's "operation moonshot" has begun in Liverpool.

The pilot scheme will see half a million people offered tests, including a new form of rapid testing, even if they do not have symptoms, as Botis Johnson banks on technological advances to steer the nation out of a second wave of COVID-19.

Around 2,000 members of the military are helping NHS staff to administer a combination of swab tests and new lateral flow tests which give results within an hour without the need of a lab.

Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) tests, which can give results in as little as 20 minutes are being trialled for hospital and care home staff. But it comes as the Guardian reported that some of the technology at the heart of the scheme missed more than 50% of positive coronavirus cases in a Greater Manchester pilot.

The OptiGene LAMP test identified only 46.7% of infections during a trial in Manchester and Salford last month, according to a letter from Greater Manchester's mass testing group seen by the newspaper.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that it was "incorrect" to suggest the rapid test has a low sensitivity, adding that it had been validated in another recent pilot.

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Source: Sky News, 6 November 2020