The emergence of a stronger variant of the new coronavirus in the United Kingdom has alarmed countries around the world, and has overwhelmed medical and testing staff in the UK. Sky News reported that the largest testing laboratory in the United Kingdom outbreak of the epidemic, in addition to a number of laboratory staff confirmed, administrative and storage staff also have a number of people infected with the disease, the situation is worrying.
The newspaper reported that of the four scientific teams at the Lighthouse Laboratory in Milton Keynes, a new town near London, three teams have been infected, and others have been diagnosed.
As the British public screening demand is increasingly high, Milton Keynes Lighthouse laboratory to test 70,000 screening samples every day, in the laboratory outbreak of infection, many people were forced to quarantine, the pressure on the laboratory more heavy. The employee who broke the news said the lab only processed 47,000 samples on Tuesday, “it is impossible to process 70,000 as before”.
The employee said that the laboratory to meet the screening volume target, not strictly enforce the code used to maintain staff safety. The British Ministry of health and Welfare denied this claim.
The report said that according to the British government’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration instructions, the Lighthouse Laboratory should set up a “bubble system” to keep employees apart from each other, but due to a lack of manpower, employees did not comply with the specifications of the “bubble system”, as usual, moving between different “bubbles”, increasing the risk of cross-contamination.
The employees said that the laboratory lobby and the restaurant also did not do a good job of safety separation, there are new staff to receive virus screening, sitting in the restaurant waiting for the results. There was a whole lab team taking a break in the cafeteria, and then a new warehouse employee who had been sitting in the cafeteria with them was diagnosed, “and the whole thing was a joke.
In order to deal with a large number of screening samples, the lighthouse laboratory employees are sacrificed Christmas holiday, 12-hour shifts every day. The employees said the working environment is very “crowded”.
The Lighthouse Laboratory, formerly the UK Biocentre, was converted into the UK’s largest testing laboratory in April this year, but has been criticized for failing to link up effectively with other medical facilities in the UK. In fact, the laboratory’s administrative team is from Deloitte (Deloitte) management consulting firm.
The UK Department of Health and Welfare confirmed the outbreak at the Lighthouse Laboratory, but insisted that the laboratory complied with all government epidemic safety regulations. The statement pointed out that there is an unprecedented amount of screening across the UK, with 450,000 people screened on the 23rd, and the government will ensure that anyone with symptoms can be tested.
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