⁍ Britain’s COVID-19 testing system, already struggling with a surge in new cases, was facing more disruption.

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⁍ Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said problems at a new warehouse had delayed the dispatch of some products.

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⁍ Experts said the disruption was also affecting diabetes tests, magnesium level tests and other diagnostic materials.

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– Just a few days ago, Britain’s National Health Service suffered a technical glitch that delayed the reporting of 15,000 positive tests for coronavirus. Now, the same glitch has hit the country’s COVID-19 testing system, which is already struggling with a surge in new cases, Reuters reports. Roche, one of the main suppliers of diagnostic tests to Britain’s Test and Trace program, said problems at a new warehouse had delayed the dispatch of some products. Experts said the disruption was also affecting diabetes tests, magnesium level tests, and other diagnostic materials. “The frustration is that they seem to have a warehouse full of consumables but are unable to ship them because the logistics system put in place to manage the extraction and identification of consumables and picking them to send them to customers has failed,” said one expert. He said supplies for blood gas analysers had been affected, which could turn into a significant issue as they were crucial for the treatment of patients with respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19. Roche said it was prioritising the dispatch of COVID-19 tests as it worked to fix the problems. “We are prioritising the dispatch of COVID-19 PCR and antibody tests and doing everything we can to ensure there is no impact on the supply of these to the NHS,” the company said in a statement. The timing of Roche’s problems could hardly be worse for Britain as new coronavirus infections surge. Experts said the disruption was also affecting diabetes tests, magnesium level tests, and other diagnostic materials.