NHS staff will start being tested for coronavirus next week, its chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said.
Speaking at the daily Covid-19 press conference, Sir Simon said critical care nurses, intensive care staff, ambulance workers and GPs will all be tested.
He added that testing will then be expanded to essential public service workers as well as social care staff.
It came as Michael Gove, who led the news briefing, said the rate of infection in the UK is doubling every three to four days and the country must stay indoors to stop it.
The Cabinet Minister opened his address by highlighting the staggering surge in UK cases, which had hit 14,579 as of 9am on Friday - up from 11,658 at the same point on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Sir Simon said: “From an NHS perspective, we think it is urgently important that we are able to test frontline workers who are off sick or otherwise isolating.
“That’s why the work that Public Health England has been leading is so important because it means we are going to be able to double this time next week the number of tests we have been doing this week.
“I can say that today we will be rolling out staff testing across the NHS, starting next week with the critical care nurses, other staff in intensive care, emergency departments, ambulance services, GPs.
“As testing volumes continue to increase, we want to widen that to essential public service workers, as well as our social care workers, and continue with patient testing that is so vital.”
During his first address to the nation after the pandemic broke out, Sir Simon also defended his record on bed reductions and nurse numbers in the NHS.
He said: “The NHS does need more staff and it does need more hospital beds, we’ve been saying that for some time and that’s what’s going to be happening.
“But the reality is … over the last several weeks we’ve freed up the equivalent of 50 hospitals across England ready and waiting for coronavirus patients.
“Under normal circumstances you would not keep 50 hospitals fully staffed with nurses and doctors not actually looking after patients.”
