Sodexo said the contract, struck with the UK's Department of Health & Social Care, would make it the country's largest provider of such testing centres.

"Sodexo's teams have moved quickly to set up COVID-19 testing centres as part of the industry-wide effort to tackle the pandemic," said Stuart Winters, head of Sodexo UK & Ireland's healthcare business.

($1 = 0.7254 pounds)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Goodman)