• First phase of programme will see 100,000 people sent self-testing kits to determine if they are infected
• Second phase of programme will see antibody tests validated for accuracy and usability
• The most effective antibody test to then be sent to 100,000 people to help understand levels of immunity
A major new programme of home testing for coronavirus will track the progress of the infection across England, the Government announced recently.
The programme, commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care, is being led by a world-class team of scientists, clinicians and researchers at Imperial College London alongside colleagues at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Ipsos MORI.
It will help improve understanding of how many people are currently infected with the virus, and potentially how many have been infected and recovered since the outbreak began.
It will also help identify individuals who may have some immunity to the virus.
Health Minister Lord Bethell said: “Understanding more about the current spread of coronavirus and the prevalence of antibodies is a vital part of our ongoing response to this pandemic.”
“This ambitious new testing programme will help us track the rate of the infection now. And, crucially, it will help identify an antibody test that is accurate and easy to use, and which can give us an indication of how many people have already had the infection. This information will inform the future action we take to manage the spread of the virus, including the development of new tests and treatments.”
Self-sampling is widely used in health care, for example in the management of diabetes and the diagnosis of HIV. The accuracy of Covid-19 antibody tests is still improving and their usability by members of the public is untested.
In the first part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT-1) programme, which begins now, 100,000 randomly selected people from 315 local authorities across England will be invited to provide nose and throat swabs, which will be tested for antigens indicating the presence of the virus. This kind of test looks for evidence that someone is currently infected with the coronavirus.
In the second part of the programme (REACT-2), a number of different antibody tests will be assessed for their accuracy and ease of use at home.
The antibody tests will first be carried out on volunteers from Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust who are known to have had the virus to establish their accuracy.
Three hundred public volunteers will also be given a sample test to self-administer, which requires them to place a finger prick of blood in a cassette, add a dye and read off the result, to assess its acceptability and whether they understand the guidance on how it is to be used.
If the sample tests prove easy to use, they will then be distributed to a larger cohort of up to 10,000 people. The aim is solely to ensure that people can properly self-administer the test, rather than to provide an accurate assessment of antibody levels.
The next stage will involve up to 5,000 key workers, who will both self-test and have the test administered by a health professional. These results will also be compared with the results of blood samples from participants tested in the laboratory. This stage will provide more information about the accuracy of the tests.
If antibody self-testing is found to work with a high degree of accuracy, acceptability and usability, it will be rolled out to 100,000 people later this year, to provide an indication of the prevalence of Covid-19 based on the presence of coronavirus antibodies.
Professor Tim Orchard, Chief Executive at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted to take part in this programme and contribute to efforts to improve COVID-19 antibody testing in the NHS and more widely across our communities. Community testing will be important in ongoing efforts to tackle the pandemic, potentially easing the burden on health workers and freeing up resources in our health system.”
