The Ministry of Defence has announced it has 14,000 personnel held at “graduated readiness” as part of the Winter Preparedness 2020 Package to help areas with mass testing. However Guido can exclusively reveal that there is growing concern within the MoD over some local authorities approach to mass testing in London, according to multiple sources with intimate knowledge of the plans.
Military sources directly involved in the support effort have revealed to Guido that while symptomatic (Pillar 1 and Pillar 2) testing is strong and growing, the asymptomatic mass testing effort is “rudderless and lacks urgency”. One local council in London has been given 27,000 lateral flow tests and yet has no plans for what they are going to do with them.
The same military sources tell Guido that the feeling is London’s local authorities feel daunted by the challenge. Hesitancy has led to “community mass testing” being rebranded as “community rapid testing”. Guido understands the new name is designed to bring those sceptical of the benefits of mass testing around to it, as a high value is placed on speed. This all comes as NHS forecasts show there may be ‘threshold breach’ of patient capacity in London in the next 3 weeks…
Conversely and more optimistically, vaccine logistics preparation is strong. London and the rest of the country are looking well prepared if vaccines are approved for distribution from the 1st December ‘D Day’ (renamed from V Day, because the military are loath to use ‘V Day’ for something that is not yet successful). England will see 50 hospital hubs as well as the 7 NHS Nightingale Hospitals converted into large vaccination centres. London’s ExCel Centre, for example is having ‘pods’ built inside to distribute the vaccine in a Covid-secure way…
