Population-wide coronavirus testing planned by Government
● But Hancock refuses to say when mass checks will become available
The Government aims to introduce population-wide testing for coronavirus, the Health Secretary has said.
Matt Hancock said ministers are “working as fast as we can” to achieve the “moonshot” of mass testing so restrictions can be eased.
Some have called for a masstesting regime to be adopted to keep levels of Covid-19 in check.
Mr Hancock said: “This is a really, really important drive that we have across Government to bring in mass testing, population-wide testing.
“The new technologies for testing that are coming on stream now are incredibly important. At the moment you have to send off a test to a laboratory and get it back and all the logistics of that takes time. It’s also quite expensive.
“We’re testing some of these right now in Porton Down, in our scientific labs, and the mass testing, population testing, where we make it the norm that people get tested regularly, allowing us therefore to allow some of the freedoms back, is a huge project in Government right now with enormous support.”
When pressed, Mr Hancock declined to say when mass testing would be available.
“We’re ramping it up over the remainder of this year. I’m not going to put a firm deadline on it. The answer is we’re working as fast as we can,” he said.
“This moonshot to have testing ubiquitous and available to reopen all sorts of things to reduce the burden of the quarantine arrangements, which nobody wants to have in place, to allow us to reopen parts of the economy, that is an incredibly important project within Government right now.”
It has been suggested that routine mass testing could see a return of packed sports stadiums and live music events, with other parts of society able to operate more safely.
Initial testing capabilities would not have been able to cope with a population-wide programme, with some tests taking days to be returned.
But the recent introduction of rapid tests, with some providing results in as little as 90 minutes, have changed the way tests can be delivered.
Mr Hancock was speaking as the Government faced criticism for axing the public health body in England in the middle of the pandemic.
Critics have expressed dismay Public Health England (PHE) is being dismantled during the crisis but Mr Hancock said delaying the change would have been “wrong”. The new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) will take on some of PHE’S responsibilities along with the NHS Test and Trace programme and the work of the Joint Biosecurity Centre.
The organisation, headed by Tory peer Dido Harding, will respond to health threats including infectious diseases, pandemics and biological weapons, he said.
Mr Hancock, questioned about the timing of the PHE announcement, said: “One of the lessons from the crisis for me is that, if something is the right thing to do, then delaying doing it is the wrong thing.”