British Army drafted in to operate mobile coronavirus testing units with a 100,000-a-day target

The British Army is to run dozens of mobile coronavirus testing units to hit 100,000-a-day target at care homes, police stations, and prisons across the country.

THE Army personnel have been drafted in to run dozens of mobile coronavirus testing units that can be sent across the UK, the facilities are set to be deployed to care homes, police stations and prisons to screen key workers and vulnerable people where there is ‘significant’ demand.

The units take less than 20 minutes to set up and the Department for Health and Social Care says each unit will be able to test hundreds of people a day. It comes as the government is under pressure to ramp up Covid-19 testing with a target to hit 100,000 a day by next Thursday.

Specially trained military personnel will collect swabs and then send them to ‘mega-labs’ for processing, the results are expected to be available within 48 hours. The new units, designed by the army’s Royal Engineers, are vehicles that have been refitted to become testing sites.