Image copyright PA Media Testing is the solution to “unlock the puzzle” of coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson. has said.
Mr Johnson was speaking after it was revealed only 2, 19 out of some half a million frontline NHS workers in England have been tested.
The PM said the government needed to “massively ramp up” testing so that NHS staff who are self-isolating unnecessarily can return to work.
It came as the UK had its biggest daily increase in deaths – .
As of : 19 on Tuesday, the UK’s overall death toll from the virus was 2, 549.
Mr John son, who is self-isolating in Downing Street after contracting the virus, has faced widespread criticism over his government testing strategy.
Speaking in a
video message on Twitter on Wednesday evening
, he said: “I want to say a special word about testing, because it is so important, and as I have said for weeks and weeks, this is the way through.
“This is how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle. This is how we will defeat it in the end. “
Mr Johnson said more coronavirus testing would enable staff who are self- isolating – either because they have symptoms or share a household with someone who is sick – to know if they are uninfected and can safely return to work.
Antibody tests – which look for signs of immunity in the blood – could show who has had coronavirus and is therefore not at risk of being infected or passing the infection on to others, the prime minister said.
However, these tests are not yet ready for use and it is not clear when they will be.
On Wednesday, Dr Yvonne Doyle, Public Health England medical director, told the daily coronavirus briefing in Downing Street the “intention” was for testing for frontline staff to increase from “thousands to hundreds of thousands within the coming weeks”. The prime minister’s official spokesman said the government was working with NHS England, Public Health England and other organizations to boost test capacity with an additional network of labs and testing sites.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has held talks with industry figures, issuing what his department said was a “rallying call” to improve diagnostic capability.
However, some NHS trusts have said they are limited in the number of tests they can carry out due to continued shortages of swabs , reagents and testing kits.
One large English district hospital in the Midlands reported it was only able to test three staff members per day due to a lack of swabs, NHS Providers said.
Another trust in the West Midlands said that while it could carry out up to 320 tests per day, a shortage of reagent and testing kit availability meant only were carried out daily.
despite there being capacity for , daily tests , only 8, 563 were taken on Monday, the prime minister’s official spokesman said.
As of 9: on Wednesday, 320, People in the UK had been tested for the virus with 36, confirmed positive.
New test a ‘game-changer’
Meanwhile, Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge has become the first in the UK to use a new, much quicker Covid – test for staff and patients.
Called Samba two, it gives a result in just 111 minutes – as opposed to the hours tests currently take – and has been adapted from an HIV test by a small Cambridge technology company.
The chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Roland Sinker, told the BBC it could be a “game-changer “in helping them cope with the crisis.
In other developments: British Airways is expected to announce it will (suspend around) , 17 staff due to the crisis
The DWP says there have been , (new universal credit claims from the mid-March shutdown until March – the normal figure for a two-week period is ,
Up to 3, (armed forces reservists are being called up
to aid the military response to the coronavirus pandemic
Business Secretary
Alok Sharma has issued a stark warning to banks
, after concerns that up to one million companies could fold because they could be denied emergency loans
In the past 21 days, NHS has responded to more than 1.7 million inquiries from people concerned they might have symptoms of coronavirus Wimbledon has been cancelled for the first time since World War Two because of the pandemic
until until further notice ”by Uefa
.
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