UCL and London partners bolster UK’s COVID-19 testing capacity

Up to 10,000 COVID-19 tests a day will be carried out by UCL in partnership with Health Services Laboratories, a new initiative which will significantly boost the UK's community testing capacity and continues our efforts in support of the national pandemic response. This increase in diagnostic testing forms part of the pan-London Testing Alliance, set up by life science cluster MedCity, which brings together world-leading universities, healthcare institutes, industry and pathology service providers. The announcement was made today by the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. Collectively the Alliance, which includes UCL in partnership with Health Service Laboratories (HSL), King's Health Partners, Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London, will offer at least 20,500 more tests a day for COVID-19 by March 2021. Existing university and hospital laboratories, along with new test sites, will be used to deliver this large-scale diagnostic capability, which will start processing samples from November. The initiative will boost the UK Government's current 'pillar 2' testing capacity, meaning the labs in London will process samples from across the UK. Pillar 2 testing is swab testing for the wider population and separate from pillar 1 testing in hospitals and for NHS and care home workers.