Friday 26th June 2020
As one of the UK’s leading laboratory groups, ALS has been keen to find practical ways of helping our clients through the current Coronavirus crisis. Following the good work already underway at other ALS sites around the world, our UK hub laboratory in Chatteris is now in a position to provide routine analysis of critical environmental surfaces to determine the extent and persistence of COVID-19. The results will help you monitor and strengthen the effectiveness of your sanitization measures within your facility.
The method employed is a real-time reverse transcription PCR method with a turnaround time of up to 48 hours. At present, this method is not UKAS accredited.
You can obtain a quote for this test either by contacting your Account Manager or by emailing us at [email protected]. The minimum number of swabs per client we will test is 4. Please note that the cost of testing does not include the cost of the swab kit (details available on request) or the cost of sending the swab back to ALS Chatteris. This can either be done via your ALS sample collection driver (if you have existing collections in place) or via an external courier at your own cost. In either case, please note that the swab should arrive at Chatteris within 48 hours of being taken in order to ensure the test results are valid.
Once you have received a quote for the test, you will need to order a special swab kit by e-mailing [email protected]. This will be delivered to you within 48 hours and will contain the swab pack together with everything you need to transport the swab safely to our laboratory. Details about how to do this Click here -> NEW: COVID-19 Surface Swabbing and Detection.
In order to manage incoming samples effectively, we will be operating a priority service – similar to our nutritional priority booking service – with orders accepted on a first come basis.
In order to book a test and for more information on this service please call our Client Service Team at Chatteris on 01354 697028.
More information on Covid-19 Surface Swabbing and Detection can be found here -> NEW: COVID-19 Surface Swabbing and Detection