A leading professor whose Covid testing firm is expanding across the North West has said testing will be a regular part of the “new normal”, even once the population has been vaccinated.
Professor Frank Joseph said testing is “here to stay” and will become a way of life and prerequisite for overseas travel.
Prof Joseph spoke to BusinessLive as his Liverpool-based firm DAM Health UK opened a new testing lab in the city this week, with plans to open another in Manchester later this month.
Prof Joseph said: "Vaccines protect individuals from getting very sick, but having the vaccine doesn't mean that you won't catch Covid-19.
“The aim is that the vaccine protects you from getting really sick and needing hospital. “What we don't know yet is whether having the vaccine will allow us to not pass it on to somebody else.
“Until we know whether the vaccine stops us from transmitting the virus, we will still need to be tested on a regular basis.
“Previous vaccines for other things have shown a decrease in transmissibility, but we can't take anything as a given with this virus, so we need to protect people."
Prof Joseph said even with a vaccine, it’s likely people will require negative Covid tests for travel in the future - for holidays or business trips.
“That’s why we set ourselves up,” he said.
“We felt we had to because I had people coming to me saying ‘I need somebody to sign this form because all external carriers and other countries have their own rules now.
“Every country you can think of has now got a prerequisite that travellers must have a certified test result. Most places even stipulate a PCR - which is the 'gold standard' one, which is what we offer.”
In December, Prof Joseph, who was until 18 months ago a full-time NHS doctor at Countess of Chester Hospital, opened his first clinic on Rodney Street, offering ‘fit to fly’ PCR “gold standard” tests ahead of the Christmas getaway rush.
Now, the demand for tests is so great that DAM Health is opening a new, purpose-built testing lab at Rose Lane.
Prof Joseph, who lives in Wirral, said that demand had not relented as people are “generally” being safe and carrying on with regular testing - and that the NHS does not recommend using its own tests for private reasons.
DAM also said it had provided tests by post across the UK, which are returned to the Liverpool lab for testing.
“The whole premise of DAM testing came from a necessity to see Liverpool, the North West, thrive and survive as much as we can, despite the COVID pandemic.
“Prior to lockdown, we were doing hundreds of tests a day, and since lockdown, it’s narrowed down. But the demand has gone up for more postal testing - responsible employers, for example.
“So whilst the numbers of face to face tests might be less, because obviously, the lockdown has meant less travel, less contact, what we're seeing is a change in the testing more to do with the lateral flow, asymptomatic testing for workplaces.”
The new Rose Lane lab opens this week, and will become the centre of operations for the firm.
The company will also launch a new testing clinic in Manchester at Empress Business Park.
Work is underway on the clinic and it will open this month, and Prof Joseph hinted at even more future expansion.
“I think there’s going to be more, but you’ve got to consolidate first and get it right.
“We want to make sure people’s experience when they turn up is good, and that turnaround is good, first.”
