Britain to bring in mass testing to curb spread of COVID-19

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a period of questions to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in London, Britain, July 7, 2020. /Reuters

Britain plans to bring in regular, population-wide testing for COVID-19 so it can suppress the spread of the virus and limit restrictions that have crippled one of the worst hit countries in the world.

The nation's 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.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has been heavily criticized 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.

The UK now has the highest death toll in Europe and the deepest economic contraction of a major advanced economy. There are now 322,177 confirmed coronavirus cases in UK and 41,466 deaths caused by the disease.

"This is a really, really important drive that we have across Government to bring in mass testing, population-wide testing," Hancock told BBC Radio.

A warning sign with hygiene and safety guidelines is pictured in an almost empty street as restrictions in the city have started to ease, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Leicester, Britain, August 19, 2020. /Reuters

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.

"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," he said.

He did not put a date on when the mass testing would start, but claimed that capacity would keep on going to be increased throughout the remainder of 2020.

The government has been criticized during the pandemic for promising new developments which then take much longer to arrive, such as the arrival of protective clothing for health workers or a comprehensive track and trace system.

The government says it currently has a testing capacity of more than 335,000. Cases in Britain have started to rise again in recent weeks with more than 1,000 positive results on eight of the last 10 days.

The government also said on Wednesday it would expand a testing study being run by the Office for National Statistics from 28,000 people now to 150,000 by October and ultimately to 400,000 to help establish a better national picture of the pandemic and spot local outbreaks.

(With input from Reuters)