As an unusual term comes to a close and Christmas holidays draw closer, students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland filed in and out of a sports hall that has been transformed into a mass coronavirus testing centre.

“It's a huge piece of mind just to be able to go home and be with my family, knowing that everything is safe,” Fiona Waddell, a 19-year-old psychology student said before the centre opens for testing.

“We're lucky enough that we are able to be together at Christmas and I just don't want anything to compromise that,” she told AFP.

The centuries-old university on Scotland's northeast coast has set up the centre as part of a rollout of Covid-19 tests for students across Scotland before the end of term.