Amazon UK to be paid to deliver coronavirus test kits

blobneb · Post by **blobneb** » 25 Mar 2020, 14:43

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... ithin-days" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UK coronavirus mass home testing to be made available 'within days'

Test to be validated this week, then made available to healthcare workers and general public.

Thousands of 15-minute home tests for coronavirus will be delivered by Amazon to people self-isolating with symptoms or will go on sale on high street within days, according to Public Health England (PHE), in a move that could restore many people’s lives to a semblance of pre-lockdown normality.

Prof Sharon Peacock, the director of the national infection service at PHE, told MPs on the science and technology committee that mass testing in the UK would be possible by next week.

The UK government has bought 3.5m of the tests, which the health secretary, Matt Hancock, mentioned on Tuesday with no suggestion they would be available to the public so quickly, and is ordering millions more.

The test, which looks like a pregnancy test and involves pricking the finger to produce a drop of blood, which is then analysed by the device, will first be validated in Oxford to ensure it works as well as scientists hope. That will happen this week, Peacock said, and it will then be available to test healthcare workers and also the general public.

“Several million tests have ben purchased for use. These are brand new products. We have to be clear they work as they are claimed to do,” she said. “Once they have been tested this week and the bulk of tests arrive, they will be distributed into the community.”

Amazon has agreed to carry out the distribution but they will also go on sale in chemist shops.

Asked if they would be available in days rather than weeks or months, Peacock said, “yes – absolutely”. If there is a charge for them, she thought it would be minimal, she said.

Widespread availability of a finger prick test that produces results in 10 to 15 minutes is a game-changer. NHS doctors and nurses with symptoms will know immediately whether they have – or have recovered from – Covid-19, enabling them to get back to work without spending a week or more in isolation if they do not have coronavirus.

NHS workers or anyone else will be able to know if they have had the virus and are therefore immune, which means they could resume their normal lives, no longer having to work from home or keep their distance from other people. It is widely thought that having Covid-19 makes people immune to the disease – or if they test positive a second time, they do not transmit it.

The test is an antibody test, which detects the presence of IGM, an antibody which arises very early on in the infection, and IGG, which is increased in the body’s response to the virus. Some of the tests on order can be read by anyone, but others would need to be interpreted by healthcare professionals.

The UK is not the only country ordering in the antibody tests. “Tests are being ordered across Europe and elsewhere and purchased in SE Asia. This is widespread practice. We are not alone in doing this,” said Peacock.

Spartacus · Post by **Spartacus** » 25 Mar 2020, 14:54

Amazon, really, what about the 4th emergency service?

2yearpostie · Post by **2yearpostie** » 25 Mar 2020, 14:55

so do amazon reach more households in all parts of the country like we do?

scoobydo79 · Post by **scoobydo79** » 25 Mar 2020, 14:57

Spartacus wrote:Amazon, really, what about the 4th emergency service?

No money in it for Royal Mail unlike pizza leaflets

2yearpostie · Post by **2yearpostie** » 25 Mar 2020, 15:02

whos gonna end up going to the places Amazon dont/cant because their too busy?

Decky Boy · Post by **Decky Boy** » 25 Mar 2020, 15:47

Incredible !!! I'd like to know why the Royal Mail didn't get this contract... were they greedy and asking a daft price ???

ssdd · Post by **ssdd** » 25 Mar 2020, 15:50

It's because they have to be ordered....through Amazon's website presumably. There are other news articles about this....

Rafmanspanners · Post by **Rafmanspanners** » 25 Mar 2020, 15:50

So much for us being the 4th emergency service!

bmccoll · Post by **bmccoll** » 25 Mar 2020, 15:50

Look out for Amazon dumping the hard to (ie costly, therefore no profit) kits for us to deliver.

Post by **Dlareg** » 25 Mar 2020, 15:53

We’ll end up doing the final mile no doubt.

enskied · Post by **enskied** » 25 Mar 2020, 16:03

Or to go on sale on the high St..... Are they MAD. STAY HOME is the message they are giving. If they put it on sale there will be a stampeed for them.

Post by **Munchboii** » 25 Mar 2020, 16:06

This is an absolute joke. How can it be that Amazon gets this contract but we Royal Mail who go to every household eachday don't even get a sniff??

Honestly I am so worried for our jobs, I fear this could mean the end of letters. No letters = no job. We should be front of the queue when it comes to getting emergency delivery contracts. Can anyone give an answer how we did not win this?????

Acca Dacca · Post by **Acca Dacca** » 25 Mar 2020, 16:12

At least its not Hermes or we'd all be dead before we found where its been ''left''

Newbie001 · Post by **Newbie001** » 25 Mar 2020, 16:22

Considering all the staff sat at home and being key workers. RM could argue that we should all be tested and order some of these kits. But they wont because they dont give a ***t

Post by **britwrit** » 25 Mar 2020, 16:39

Come on, let's be fair. If Amazon doesn't get this, the descendants of Jeff Bezos might have to work for a living in 2220.