John Lewis Partnership pilots latest coronavirus testing tech
The John Lewis Partnership has become one of the first UK businesses to pilot and roll-out NHS Test and Trace lateral flow Covid-19 testing.
The result of a partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care, this was introduced to the national John Lewis distribution centre at Magna Park, Milton Keynes, in November, which in response to Black Friday and pre-Christmas demand, processed around 135,000 online orders per day during the month.
Up to 1,000 employees and temporary agency staff volunteered to be tested up to three times a week.
The initiative, which is voluntary and provides results within 30 minutes, will now be available at 40 locations in England. This includes Waitrose and John Lewis supply chain sites, Waitrose.com customer fulfilment centres, John Lewis textiles factory and selected Waitrose and John Lewis stores.
It will provide capability to test around 16,000 employees and temporary agency staff per week.
Andrew Murphy, Executive Director for Operations at the John Lewis Partnership, says: “We’re proud to have helped develop and establish a testing scheme that contributes towards the UK’s fight against Covid-19.”
“We already have a wide range of measures in place to keep our Partners and customers safe and rapid testing builds on this at our busiest time of the year.”
Dido Harding, Interim Executive Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, says: “This pilot is one of many which will lay the foundations for the next phase of NHS Test and Trace with rapid, targeted testing which will allow us to identify even more people who may be unknowingly carrying the virus, more quickly.”
“In addition to the testing taking place in work places such as the John Lewis Partnership, we are carrying out rapid, regular testing in hospitals, care homes, universities and other areas that we value and that we need as a society to stay open and stay safe.”
