PM pins hopes on ‘moonshot’ daily virus test for everyone
AN ambitious ‘moonshot’ plan for coronavirus testing to avoid a national lockdown was outlined by Boris Johnson last night.
Against the backdrop of another row over the Government’s strategy, the Prime Minister said he hoped millions of tests could be carried out every day.
With results in 20 minutes, the tests would quickly identify those who were negative for the virus, enabling them to go to work or even sporting matches or the theatre, he added.
Mr Johnson told yesterday’s Downing Street press conference about a major trial on mass testing that to begin next month in Salford.
He said: ‘In the near future we want to start using testing to identify people… who are not infectious.
‘We believe that new types of test which are simple, quick and scalable will become available. They use swabs or saliva and can turn round results in 90 or even 20 minutes.’
The Prime Minister described the strategy as a ‘moonshot’ – a phrase initially used by Health Secretary Matt Hancock
– and said it would help the country get back to normal.
He said: ‘I’m still hopeful, as I’ve said before, that in many ways we could be able to get some aspects of our lives back to normal by Christmas.
‘I talked just now about how you could do that through that moonshot of daily testing – everybody gets a pregnancystyle test, a rapid turn-around test in the morning, 15 minutes later you know whether you are infectious of not.
‘That gives you a kind of passport, a freedom to mingle with everybody else who is similarly not infectious.’
Mr Johnson’s ambition was in stark contrast to the current state of the testing programme, which is struggling to process even 175,000 swabs a day. Some patients are being told to travel more than 500 miles to their nearest testing centre.
Health Secretary Mr Hancock suggested yesterday the public was to blame for the problems, claiming the system was struggling as too many people were booking tests when they were not eligible.
‘Results in 90 or even 20 minutes’