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This part of the inquiry will also look at the purchase of ventilators to help patients breathe, as well as millions of lateral flow and PCR tests.

According to UKHSA, some of the higher numbers may be attributable to the use of PCR multiplex technology, which can detect multiple gastrointestinal pathogens in one test.

“If a person has a laboratory-based PCR test done for influenza and an influenza A virus is detected, the virus is subtyped to determine if it is an H1 or H3 or untypeable.”

Known as a tetraplex digital PCR assay, this method of testing allows researchers to use water or soil samples for rapid and precise identification of Burmese pythons, northern African pythons, boa constrictors and rainbow boas from environmental DNA -- which scientists refer to as eDNA -- collected in the wild.

"There are two important next steps for harnessing the power of this eDNA analysis. First, we plan on adding additional species that can be identified using the tetraplex digital PCR assay, especially fish such as Asian swamp eels and bullseye snakeheads," said Frank Mazzotti, co-author and professor of wildlife ecology at UF/IFAS FLREC.