UK buys 3.5m antibody tests to get medics back on wards

Government must ‘move much faster’ on screening amid calls for switch to South Korean model

THE UK has ordered 3.5million antibody tests to detect who has contracted coronavirus and ensure NHS and other key workers can return to the front line, the Health Secretary has revealed.

Matt Hancock yesterday confirmed that millions of the tests, described as a “game changer” by Boris Johnson, would soon be available to help determine who may be immune from the disease and safe to return to work.

The tests can show if someone has developed antibodies in their bloodstream after fighting the virus, with medical advisers confident those who recover will have developed immunity.

Mr Hancock also confirmed that a new testing facility in Milton Keynes had opened as part of the Government’s target to rapidly increase the number of standards tests performed.

Ministers are pushing to hit 10,000 per day by the end of this week, rising again to 25,000 by mid-april.

It comes amid calls for the UK to follow countries like South Korea, which have been credited with limiting the virus’s spread through mass testing.

The UK currently tests just 5,000 patients a day, primarily those in hospital, with the vast majority of people with symptoms receiving no diagnosis.

There are growing fears among NHS leaders and MPS that the Government is still not moving fast enough.

NHS hospital chief executives warned that the lack of testing for staff was now their greatest concern, with rising numbers off sick self-isolating for two weeks at a time, because someone in their household had a cough.

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, urged the Government to commit to a firm timeline for expanding the tests, rather than a soft target.

Mr Hancock told the daily Downing Street press conference: “I understand why NHS staff, in particular, and others across public service are so keen to get the testing ramped up, that we need to see and that we are undertaking.

“Of course it really matters for getting people getting back to work, so we have now bought 3.5million antibody tests. That will allow people to see whether they have had the virus and are immune to it and then can get back to work.”

Dr Jenny Harries, the Deputy Chief

Medical Officer, said the antibody tests would also enable the UK to learn more about how the virus spreads throughout the UK population.

This will help ministers and experts devise better strategies to deal with future outbreaks, ensuring that it can be closed down “more quickly”, she said.

It will also help determine when is the right time to begin easing social distancing measures.

The announcement came hours after Mr Hunt, now the chairman of the Commons health committee, criticised the Government for moving too slowly on staff testing.

Warning that the UK was testing “virtually no more people than over a week ago,” he added: “I think we need to move much faster. We should introduce weekly testing for all NHS staff to ensure they are not going to be infecting vulnerable patients. This has to be the number one priority (for the Government) to sort out. We need to massively ramp up the community testing if we’re going to supress the virus properly. We’ve got very welcome ambitions from the Government but that’s not the same as a national plan.”

On Monday, Mr Hancock said the UK was ramping up testing “as much as possible, as fast as possible”.

However, just hours later it emerged that No 10 had contacted research institutes as recently as Sunday afternoon, asking them to lend kit to carry out such tests. Scientists questioned why the call came so late.

“We urgently need to scale up testing,” the email from No10 stated.

“There is only a limited supply of these machines, so the PM is making an urgent appeal for you to lend us your machine[s] for the duration of the crisis. We will meet all expenses and assume all liabilities and requirements associated with the use of these machines for this purpose. We undertake to return or replace the equipment when the emergency is over. We would very much like to collect any machines you have tomorrow or Tuesday.”

A related letter from Boris Johnson said plainly that “there are no machines available to buy,” and that the “urgent appeal” is “in the national interest”.

10,000 The number of tests for Covid-19 that the Government wants the health service to carry out per day by the end of the week