Coronavirus testing expanded to all essential workers
All the UK’s essential workers will be able to request a coronavirus test from tomorrow as the government tries to hit its target of administering 100,000 tests by next Thursday.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said at today’s press briefing that essential workers “will be able to book an appointment for themselves directly” on a government website from tomorrow.
From today, employers will be able to book their staff in for a Covid-19 test.
Hancock said daily testing capacity was now at 51,000, which was “ahead of our plans”, however there were only 22,814 Covid-19 tests administered in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday.
Hancock set a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April earlier this month, which is just one week away.
Professor John Newton, who is co-ordinating the government’s testing programme, said at the press conference that “we are ahead of where we thought we’d be at this stage”.
Hancock said the plan was always to increase capacity first and to then increase the number of people who could access testing.
“Because capacity has increased so substantially, we can now expand who gets the test,” he said.
“Our ultimate goal is that everyone who could benefit from a test, gets a test.
“But we had to start by prioritising patients in hospital, followed by NHS and care colleagues, and for those in care homes.”
Hancock also announced plans for a coronavirus testing and tracing app to be released in a matter of weeks.
The government will recruit 18,000 people, including 3,000 health workers and specialists, to build and administer the initiative.
He said the tracking and tracing app would be “critical to keep the virus under control” and to stop a second peak.
He said: “If you become unwell, you will be able to tell the app, the app will then send an alert to other app users that you have been in significant contact with in recent days, even before you had symptoms, so they know and they can act accordingly so we can get tests to people even if they’re asymptomatic.”
The health secretary also gave more details of what he called the “biggest virus and infection antibody study this country’s ever seen”.
The study will include 300,000 people over the next year and will see people “provide regular samples through self administered swabs” and also answer questions by health workers.
Hancock said the study would “inform us on the big choices we have to make on social distancing measures and how to return to a normal life”.