Staff from the approvals directorate were invited to a live thank you, via YouTube, from Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock and Testing Minister Lord James Bethell on Friday 1 May.
The thank you was for those who have played a role in helping the government to develop its testing capacity. The HRA team was invited in recognition of its role in helping the REACT studies to begin. These studies will help us to get a real-time assessment of community transmission of COVID-19, through self-sampling with either antigen or antibody testing kits.
Mr Hancock said ‘you have been invited on this call because you had a mission critical role in making it [the government’s testing capacity] happen … everyone should be very proud of the part that they played in April 2020’.
Tom Lucas, Approvals Operations Manager, was one of the members of staff on the call.
He said: 'Being one of the team in the HRA that was thanked by Matt Hancock was very rewarding. It makes me proud to be able to make a difference and I must admit I did send the link to my Mum so she could see it too!'