Twickenham Stadium and AMEX Stadium, two of the UK's major sporting venues, will become drive-through COVID-19 testing facilities for NHS staff and essential workers.
AMEX Stadium, home to Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club has already been utilised as an NHS storage site and is touted to provide up to 1,000 tests a day.
"It is hugely impressive, and a great triumph of both teamwork and hard work. The Amex will be the biggest testing site anywhere on the south coast, and will be used for self-testing and assisted testing," Albion's deputy chairman, Paul Barber said.
The announcement that sporting venues will be turned into a testing facility follows the government’s partnership with universities, research institutes and companies to establish more than 32 testing new labs and test sites across the UK.
Twickenham Stadium will also act as a drive-through testing venue for NHS staff and key workers.
“The RFU [Rugby Football Union] is pleased to be able to support the COVID-19 drive-through testing programme at Twickenham Stadium for NHS and other key workers,” RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeny said.
“We receive tremendous support for frontline services during match days at Twickenham and we are grateful for the opportunity to be able to support key workers during this severe national crisis with the use of our site and staff to support operationally.”
The network of testing facilities at sporting venues will supply thousands more coronavirus testing kits to critical workers and allow those who test negative to return to work.
“The government is rapidly scaling up the national effort to boost testing capacity for coronavirus to protect the vulnerable, support our NHS, and ultimately save lives,” health minister Lord Bethell added.
“The new service will help end the uncertainty of whether NHS and social care staff and other key workers need to stay at home, meaning those who test negative will be able to return to work.
“This is a national effort and we are proud to be working with a number of partners to turn this ambition into a reality and roll our additional capacity to where it is needed.”
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
