Mass testing is needed to keep virus in check, says Blair

A MASS coronavirus testing regime which allows the bulk of the population to be tested must be adopted to keep the disease in check, Tony Blair has urged.

The former Labour Prime Minister warned that the UK is unlocking restrictions when Covid-19

levels remain “stubbornly high”.

He said the easing of the measures puts a premium on having the best containment strategy in place, yet he warned: “We don’t have it.”

Mr Blair said the UK should enact mass testing using laboratory-based tests and rapid, onthe-spot tests – both antigen and antibody – “which will allow us to test the bulk of the population and do so, if necessary, regularly”.

A report by his think-tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said the UK’s approach to testing is chiefly concentrated on lab-based tests for those with symptoms and critical workers.

But it instead urges the Government to “shift at speed” to building a mass testing regime, rather than continuing with targeted and controlled testing.

The report states: “The prevalence of the virus means that mass testing is required to continue to screen a high proportion of the population, identifying cases to keep the disease in check and to help large numbers of people make informed decisions about how they should behave based on their disease status.

“The current approach places a high dependence on a track and trace model that is neither fully ready, nor workable in the absence of mass testing. The two must work together for the population to safely engage with the easing of lockdown measures.”

The think-tank recommends people receive their test results within 24 hours, and any person who has come into contact with an infected person be tested. It also calls for regular testing for a “sizeable part of the population”.