Boost for testing ‘moonshot’ ... but where’s Matt’s mask?
ARRIVING for work in his chauffeurdriven car, Matt Hancock wore a smirk instead of a mask yesterday.
Members of the public face fines of £200 if they fail to wear a face covering in taxis or privately hired cars. There is an exemption for chauffeur-driven vehicles – but Downing Street has advised its top team to put on masks in their ministerial cars.
The Health Secretary is understood to have worn his during the journey, but removed it as the car approached the Department for Health and Social Care.
The gaffe came as No 10 revealed faster Covid tests were now being trialled in England’s hospitals. Seven sites across the country are using two different kits, which can provide results within an hour without the need for processing in a laboratory.
The tests will be used to perform regular checks on hospital staff in a bid to pick up asymptomatic sufferers who would otherwise spread the virus unwittingly.
Trials will also be extended for areas under the strictest Tier Three lockdown measures, where care homes, schools and universities will also have access to the tests.
A month after Boris Johnson announced his ‘moonshot’ bid to screen millions of Britons for Covid every day, Mr Hancock said the new kits show ‘real promise’ and ‘give us hope on the path back to normal life’. He revealed yesterday that the Government is now investing in manufacturing capacity to produce the tests in the UK.
His predecessor Jeremy Hunt said the development was ‘potentially the most significant news on the fight against the virus we have heard for many, many weeks’.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Johnson was among those encouraged by the progress. They confirmed there were pilot schemes taking place ‘in the worst-affected regions, so that includes the North West, the North East and Yorkshire’, adding that hospitals in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Basingstoke and Southampton will be able to test asymptomatic NHS staff.
The so- called ‘lateral flow’ tests could produce results in as little as 15 minutes, potentially reducing the need for contact tracing if they were conducted regularly. Anyone who receives a positive result from the kits will have the finding confirmed by a conventional swab.
The new tests could eventually be mass produced to provide millions of units per day. Ministers hope that by 2021 they could be used to allow more businesses – including theatres and football stadiums – to reopen without social distancing.