Grand National sponsor develops home testing kit to aid coronavirus battle

Grand National sponsor Randox Health may have missed out on a live version of the Aintree showpiece this year, but the company is helping lead the way in the fight against the coronavirus with the development of a home testing kit.

According to its website, Randox Health has volunteered a significant percentage of its Covid-19 testing capacity to the UK national testing programme, which focuses on key workers in the NHS, thus limiting its ability to supply kits for private use.

The company announced on Friday it would be making its testing kits available directly to test centres in Northern Ireland, having successfully made the case that tests should be available locally, according to a company statement.

The statement read: "On the emergence of the Covid-19 threat Randox utilised their years of regulated diagnostic experience to quickly develop and robustly validate a test for the Covid-19 virus. Randox had significant confidence in this test and presented them to Public Health England (PHE) for evaluation. PHE were managing this validation process for each of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

"The UK Government showed significant confidence in Randox’s capability and conducted full engagement and planning subject to PHE acceptance of the Randox test. When PHE acceptance was granted, the Randox part in the national plan had been prepared and was quickly initiated.

"We understand that the national plan for the testing of key workers is exactly that, a national plan, inclusive of Northern Ireland.”

It continued: "Randox have acted with speed and initiative throughout this crisis and will continue to ramp up our testing capability to support the national testing plan for key workers in Northern Ireland.

"Every part of Randox’s business is focused on doing everything we can to support the Covid-19 testing programme, to both save lives and ensure the speediest possible return to a more normal society."

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