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Alastair Cook has indicated the forthcoming Test series with India can be his last as England captain.

Britain's biotech firm Avacta Group on Monday (January 10) announced halting sales of its Covid-19 rapid antigen lateral flow test AffiDX to replace antibodies in the device and increase its ability to diagnose the Omicron variant. The company stated that AffiDX is capable of detecting Omicron when the virus is present in high numbers in samples, but the sensitivity of the test reduces at lower viral loads. The performance of all rapid antigen tests came under scanner in wake of a large number of mutations in the Omicron variant. AffiDX contains both a proprietary Affimer reagent and a commercially available antibody. The Affimer reagent detects the Omicron variant with the same sensitivity as the Delta variant, and performance of the antibody is paired with the Affimer reagent in the test. This has been affected by the additional Omicron mutations, the firm said. Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta Group, said: "Our determination to only provide high quality, high performance diagnostic tests has led us to the correct decision to pause all marketing of the AffiDX® lateral flow antigen test. We have, of course, been unable to market the product in the UK since October 2021, as the product continues to await approval under the new CTDA regulatory process.

Community pharmacies played a central role in the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering more than 22 million jabs in the past 12 months. Besides delivering millions of jabs, latest figures from NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) revealed a 50 per cent increase in the number of pharmacies delivering Covid boosters compared from October 2021 to January 2022. NHSE&I released the data on Friday (January 14) to thank community pharmacy teams for their work during the crisis time. Lauding the efforts made by community pharmacy teams during the pandemic, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) director of NHS Services Alastair Buxton said: "Just over a year ago we were fighting for Government recognition of the part community pharmacy could play in administering Covid vaccines, so a year later it is great to see the efforts of the pharmacy vaccination sites being praised by NHSE&I, with recognition of the significant role they have played in the overall programme.

In its response to NHS England's consultation on 'the future of vaccination services', the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has suggested that a wider range of NHS vaccinations being available from community pharmacies could support the achievement of increased vaccination levels. PSNC said: "Any additional services that contractors could provide can only be considered with additional remuneration above the current global sum in the community pharmacy contractual framework to ensure that the services are adequately resourced." Alastair Buxton, director of NHS Services at PSNC, said: "We've always known, and the evidence supports this, that community pharmacies are one of the most popular and accessible places for people to receive a range of vaccinations. "The NHS was slow to take advantage of this at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, so we welcome this consultation from them to bring together a wide range of views on the topic. "In the longer-term, if the right funding and support is in place, many pharmacies could help deliver a much wider range of NHS vaccination programmes - giving the public the convenience and service that they want, and taking pressure off our general practice colleagues. It makes perfect sense, and we look forward to the NHS response to this consultation."

Pharmacies have administered more than five million flu vaccinations under the national flu vaccination service in 2022/23, revealed the advanced service flu report published by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). According to the report, 5,007,578 million vaccinations has been administered by community pharmacies in 2022/23. Whilst in 2021/22 the total number of vaccines administered in community pharmacies was 4.85 million. The service has continued to achieve year-on-year growth in the number of vaccinations administered since it launched in 2015. Commenting on the end-of-season figures, Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services, Community Pharmacy England said: "This season's flu vaccination figures are yet another example of the incredible contribution that our members and their teams make to protect the public and the NHS as part of a key public health programme. "Given the significant financial and workforce pressures that our members continue to face, this year on year growth is a fantastic achievement and a testament to their hard work and dedication.

Community pharmacies are well placed to play a role in preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) said Director of NHS Services. The recent analysis by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) revealed that nearly 100,000 more people with cardiovascular disease than expected have died since the start of the pandemic in England. Latest figures show that the number of people waiting for time-sensitive cardiac care was at a record high of nearly 390,000 at the end of April in England. Average ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes have consistently been above 30 minutes since the beginning of 2022, and in December 2022 they even breached 90 minutes. The target is 18 minutes, though the Government has set a new average target of 30 minutes over 2023/24. Director of NHS Services, Alastair Buxton, said: "It is concerning to hear that there have been tens of thousands of preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We share BHF's desire to see more action on preventing the causes of CVD and, subject to appropriate funding being in place, community pharmacy teams are well placed to play a role in this.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that free COVID-19 lateral flow tests will be supplied through community pharmacies for at-risk groups. The service will operate from 6 November for patients aged over 12 years who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms. Community pharmacies that have participated in this new initiative will be paid £4 plus VAT for each box of five lateral flow device test kits provided. Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England said: "This is not going to be a high-volume service, but community pharmacy teams are well placed to provide LFD test kits to eligible patients with them having made over 25.5 million supplies of COVID-19 LFD test kits in 2021/22.

The specification for the Pharmacy Contraceptive Service has been launched for pharmacy contractors to download from the NHSBSA website. However, the service will not start on 11th January 2023, as originally planned, but it is expected to commence in early 2023, revealed the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). It added: "The exact start date is yet to be agreed, as now the service specification has been published, community pharmacy IT system suppliers need time to develop support for the service, so this is available to contractors from the service commencement date." Commenting on the publication of the service specification, Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services, at PSNC said: "When time in their busy professional lives allows, the publication of the service specification ahead of the start of the new service provides contractors and their teams with an opportunity to learn more about it and to consider whether it is something they will have the capacity to provide in due course.