BREAKING NEWS: Testing Lab in the UK Hit by Covid Outbreak

Testing Lab in the UK Hit by Covid Outbreak.

Britain’s largest testing lab has been hit with an outbreak of coronavirus after staff members had claimed it failed to follow safety procedures. It has been revealed that three out of the four scientific teams at the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Laboratory in Buckinghamshire have reported cases of Covid-19.

It was in this lab that the first record of the new more transmissible strain of coronavirus was reported back in September, according to Public Health England. It is understood that administrative and warehouse staff have also reported cases and 20 of a 70-person lab team, they are isolating, according to a staff member who wished to remain anonymous. The same worker claimed that there was staff mixing in the building’s canteen and lobbies as well.

The outbreak threatens to strain the lab’s ability to keep up with rising demand for testing after it was asked to process 70,000 tests a day this could hamper the UK’s mass testing programme significantly.

Staff at the Lighthouse Labs have given up Christmas in order to work 12-hour shifts in what the source described as “cramped working conditions” at the Milton Keynes laboratory, which is based at the UK Biocentre.

The British government confirmed to Sky that the outbreak exists, but insisted that the lab has followed all protocols for staying COVID secure in the workplace.

“NHS Test and Trace continues to test record numbers of people and people can have confidence that if they have symptoms and need a test, they can get one,” the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement to Sky. We are delivering an unprecedented volume of tests — more than 450,000 yesterday alone — and during periods of high demand our focus is ensuring that anyone with symptoms can get a test.”

Workers at the laboratory, however, expressed concerns that demands to process a higher volume of tests as the UK battles a rapidly-spreading outbreak of a new coronavirus variant have led to corners being cut. The report says that the centre is being asked to process 70,000 tests per day, but is currently processing around 50,000.

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