You asked
Each manufacturer of the Covid PCR test will recommend a differing maximum amplification cycle number when determining the presence of SARS CoV-2, but a maximum of around 40 amplification cycles is typically recommended by test manufacturers.
My questions are:
How many amplification cycles were Covid PCR testing stations in the UK doing in December 2020 ?
And how many amplification cycles were they doing in March 2021 ?
We said
Thank you for your request.
The COVID-19 Infection Survey is a household survey that estimates the number of people testing positive for infection in the UK. Our statistics refer to individuals in the community, by which we mean private households. These figures exclude infections reported in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.
We only test swabs of individuals in our survey and we send all our swabs to the Lighthouse Laboratories in Glasgow. Therefore, we do not hold the information you have requested.
Public Health England (PHE) are responsible for PCR testing so would be better placed to assist with your query. They can be contacted via email at wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk.