Visor of the type of personal protective equipment (PPE) used at the Lighthouse Lab at Alderley Park, by staff during COVID-19 testing, 2020-2021

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is important to protect those testing COVID-19 samples. Not only do people have to learn the order to put it on (donning) and take off (doffing) but how to complete their tasks. Sometimes it can be hot or awkward wearing extra layers. Some tasks also involve using gloves inside a safety cabinet.

Alderley Park in Cheshire is one of the UK’s Lighthouse Labs – a high volume COVID-19 testing facility. Over 80,000 samples are tested every day. The lab is open 24 hours, seven days a week, staffed by three teams, each working a shift. The Lighthouse Labs take their name from the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing technology which uses fluorescent light to detect the virus.

On 18 March 2020, Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) was asked by the UK government to coordinate the creation of the Lighthouse Labs Network and run one of the labs. Based at Alderley Park, MDC found a disused and empty building and with over 1000 volunteers and support from companies and the army, developed a testing facility that processed its first sample on 7 April 2020. Skilled local university students, postgraduates, PhD candidates and scientific and medical researchers, and staff from Medicines Discovery Catapult, AstraZeneca, and Cancer Research UK all gave their time to test samples.