A new approach to testing and screening is needed to beat Covid in 2021

While we wait for vaccines to be rolled out, effective testing will play a major role in how we live our lives

These past few weeks have contained more than enough highs and lows around Covid-19.

On the plus side, the UK became the first in the world to begin a vaccination programme, with approvals meaning that a vaccine rollout can now take place. We all hope that this will be a turning point. On the other hand, though, we have seen an acceleration of infection rates, significant new tier restrictions and now a new national lockdown which includes a stay at home order and closure of all schools.

As we enter a new year, 2021 already has one thing in common with 2020 – planning ahead is proving extremely difficult. So, what approach do you take when your job is to try and figure out what comes next? That’s what the UK’s science and technology community have been doing since Covid-19 struck earlier this year.

The virus was a catalyst for creative and inventive thinking that has seen the UK’s scientific response lead the world. Working together, our role has been to look beyond immediate need. Where are we likely to be in six months? What tools will we need?

Right now, those needs are very different to the focus early last year, when TTP – a technology and development company based in Cambridge – were proud to be part of the ventilator challenge. We developed a working prototype ready for mass production, designed and submitted for approval by regulators in less than a month. This process would normally take years and it’s an example of the sort of collaboration that has been the hallmark of much progress that has been made.

Obviously, we all hope that recent breakthroughs around vaccines will mark the turning of a corner. The speed of their development, including here in the UK, has been impressive. But there remains a long way to go.

As vaccines are rolled out, and for the immediate future, effective testing will have a major role in how we live our lives.

There has been growing and significant concern around the spread of the virus in schools, and the role it is playing in the wider effort to suppress infection rates. Once current lockdown restrictions are lifted and they are allowed to reopen, we need to find a way to let education continue in as normal a way as possible, but balanced with protecting the health and wellbeing of students, teachers and families.

It’s a major issue with no easy answers, like many of the decisions that need to be taken about how we approach our management of the pandemic.

Until we start to feel the impact of the vaccine rollout, we need to develop safe, reliable and rapid mechanisms which could allow schools to stay open and stop important sections of the economy, such as the hospitality sector, from having to close their doors completely again. That’s where our focus has been.

The reality is that regular, repeated, individual testing of large numbers of people – school pupils, for example – is costly and creates logistical challenges, not least for those who administer the tests. We therefore need to think about what’s sustainable and deliverable in the longer term.

We are developing testing equipment which will allow groups of up to 40 people - school classes, a workforce or even a Premier League football squad - to be screened for positive cases in one go. This can be done for a similar cost, and with the same accuracy, as a single test.

Crucially, the equipment designed to deliver the screening is compact and can be used by anyone. Far fewer people are involved in the process. Designed to complement existing resources, it mirrors a broader move towards distributed diagnostics, where people have greater control over their own health security. It’s something we will see much more of in the future.

What comes next? Seeing into the future is never easy. But we can predict with confidence that collaboration and shared purpose will continue to be important and the need for the science and technology community to provide tools to help us manage new challenges will be crucial, through 2021 and beyond.

Sam Hyde is chief executive of TTP, a technology and development company based in Cambridge