HEALTH Minister, Vaughan Gething, has welcomed the announcement of a new Lighthouse Lab in Newport as part of a UK-wide expansion.
It is expected that the new lab, to be based at Imperial Park, will be up and running by the end of August. Public Health Wales, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership and Life Sciences Hub Wales have been working with the UK Government to get the lab up and running.
Mr Gething said: “I am pleased the new Lighthouse Lab will be set-up in Newport, as part of the UK Government’s expansion.
Today’s announcement builds on the £5m Welsh Government investment in a Public Health Wales laboratory at this site and when it is no longer needed for coronavirus testing it will be handed over for use by NHS Wales.
We are making increasing use of the UK-wide testing system and the Lighthouse Lab network. This will support our Test, Trace, Protect strategy by helping us get the testing capacity and turnaround times we need, and to be ready for the autumn. It also provides another jobs boost to Wales’ growing life sciences sector.”
The Newport lab will be processing tests from England as well as Wales.
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