A leader in medical diagnostics is reporting huge demand for coronavirus home test kits after the government’s free lateral flow testing programme ended earlier this month.

Liverpool-based DAM Health, which specialises in COVID-19 testing and carries out work in other areas of medical diagnostics, says it has been inundated with requests for non-travel antigen kits from people testing at home and from big businesses around the UK.

The company says demand is so high that it has had to employ a raft of new operations team staff. It follows the end of free lateral flow tests in early April and comes as a result of increased concern surrounding the new Omicron XE variant.

Professor Frank Joseph, medical director at DAM Health, says: “Concerns about COVID-19 are not going away.

“In fact, we are seeing more and more people turn to us for home test kits now after free testing ended on the NHS, and particularly as people start to socialise in greater numbers as the warmer weather comes in. There was an unprecedented demand for home test kits ahead of the Easter bank holiday weekend.

“It is safe to say the demand for home testing was greater than it was this time last year and so we’ve expanded our operational team to fulfil the massive number of orders we’re receiving.

“We are hearing from people who are worried about the Omicron XE variant and they are being extra cautious by testing themselves at home before mixing. People are being safe which is still very important.”

DAM Health has sent supplies, testing equipment, sanitising products and financial aid to less economically developed countries to help the battle against the disease.

In addition to supplying home testing kits, the private health firm operates diagnostics clinics across the UK, Europe and Mexico.

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