Britain plans to bring in regular, population-wide testing for coronavirus so it can suppress the spread of the virus and limit restrictions that have crippled one of the worst hit countries in the world.
UK NOW HAS THE HIGHEST DEATH TOLL IN EUROPE
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government was trialing a range of new, faster tests that can give instant results and hoped to roll them out towards the end of the year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has been heavily criticised for its handling of the pandemic, with critics saying it was too slow to go into lockdown and too slow to roll out testing to know how far the virus had spread.
It now has the highest death toll in Europe and the deepest economic contraction of a major advanced economy. “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,” Hancock told BBC Radio.
He said the country’s research laboratories at Porton Down were trialing new saliva tests that do not need to go to a laboratory, so they can deliver faster results.