High-contact industries: Why we still need testing
Salient Bio Co-Founder Jack Priestman discusses recent healthcare challenges, and the need for consistent solutions.
Our testing capacity will continue to play a vital role in the fight against Covid-19, notwithstanding the great breakthroughs made in developing vaccines. News that vaccine rollouts were beginning around the turn of the year prompted a spike of emotional – and economic – relief, if only briefly. There is cause for optimism. However, for high-contact industries, more immediate respite may come from increased availability of same-day Covid testing.
These industries would benefit immensely from same-day testing in the workplace, not least because it would provide a platform to recovery after a torrid 2020. Easier access to same-day tests would also help high-contact professions cope with the challenges of doing business in the prolonged pandemic, be they logistical or psycho-emotional. Moreover, increased testing provision would improve resilience against other uncertainties beyond Covid-19.
Sustaining recovery
Widespread availability of rapid testing would help certain sectors build on the optimism of early 2021. UK logistics, for example, is expected to enter a ‘golden age’, following last year’s record-breaking rise in square-footage take-up to a total above 42 million. This 69 per cent increase may herald further growth for the sector, with the pandemic catalysing the shift from bricks-and-mortar retail to ecommerce.[1]
For now, though, the potential for further growth remains exactly that. To deliver on this potential, we should equip UK logistics with the testing capacity to remain resilient against additional waves of Covid-19. Although increasingly automated, the sector still relies on humans to keep businesses running. These workers would be better equipped to drive sustained growth in the sector if they were assured of their continuing good health.
Supporting supply chains
Similarly, same-day testing would enable manufacturers to keep pace with recovering demand without exacerbating issues through the supply chain. After months of decline, demand for UK-manufactured products was close to levelling off at the end of 2020, and the industry will need to remain operational to maximise revenues this year.
Increased testing capacity is also crucial to this objective. Regular testing would limit the ongoing impact of the pandemic on UK manufacturing, building resilience against disruption into otherwise vulnerable just-in-time supply chains, and freeing up resources to focus on other challenges.
Mitigating Brexit-based disruption
In terms of uncertainties external to Covid-19, Brexit remains a behemoth. Despite the saga of negotiations reaching its climax over Christmas, business group Logistics UK has warned that post-Brexit arrangements will still come with extra baggage – largely in the form of additional bureaucracy with the potential to derail supply chains.[2]
Substantial testing capacity would facilitate the incorporation of diagnostics into emergency logistical procedures such as ‘Operation Stack’, dramatically reducing the risk of hauliers acting as lethal conduits of Covid-19. This would also benefit supply chains because rapid, reliable testing would limit the number of delays attributable to the need for workers to self-isolate.
Safeguarding wellbeing
With England’s third national lockdown reportedly triggering an ‘unprecedented crisis’ for the population’s mental health, the psycho-emotional benefits of same-day testing should not be ignored.[3] One survey reported that 66 per cent of workers feared catching Covid, while a further 62 per cent worried about spreading the virus at work. Supplying a safe working environment through regular testing would therefore make workers happier as well as healthier, which can only be good for business.
There are thus multiple gains to be made from regular, rapid, and reliable Covid testing in high-contact industries. Same-day testing would provide workers with peace of mind, a welcome boost for their mental health which will hopefully match the renewed optimism around economic performance in 2021. Indeed, this year will bring its own challenges and uncertainties, but a proper testing programme would preserve economic and emotional wellbeing until the pandemic is eventually over.