TESTING for coronavirus may become quicker and more accurate following the launch of a£1.3 million research programme in Oxford.

The new initiative will use the many tests developed by the healthcare industry to either detect current coronavirus infection or to find out if someone has previously been infected through their paces in hospital, general practice, and care home environments.

The joined venture between the University of Oxford and the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust will bring together experts who are highly experienced in evaluating diagnostic tests and generating evidence required for a test to be used in the NHS.

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Professor Gail Hayward, associate professor at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, said: “While a new diagnostic test might work well in a lab under controlled conditions, there are many different factors that could make it less accurate when you take that test out of the lab and into the real world.

“These include the range of ways that Covid-19 can present itself, from non-symptomatic carriers to post-symptomatic people who have recovered, the range of other illnesses people might have and the challenges of performing tests in a busy clinical environment.”

The research will assess multiple diagnostic tests at once at sites across the country and can be adapted to add in new tests as they become available.

The study has been given urgent public health research status by the Department of Health and Social Care to expedite its delivery.