Mass coronavirus testing for people who are not showing symptoms will be introduced across the North East.
The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland's councils have all taken up the Government's offer to introduce rapid lateral flow testing for asymptomatic people, following its introduction in Liverpool.
Speaking on Sky News on Tuesday, Mr Hancock said 66 local authorities had already expressed an interest in the Covid-19 tests and he was expecting more to sign up.
He added: “I can confirm that we are rolling out the sort of mass testing we are seeing in Liverpool, and indeed we earlier piloted in Stoke-on-Trent, across 66 local authorities.
“Last night I wrote to the directors of public health of all local authorities in England saying we can make available these brilliant new lateral flow tests that give results in 15 minutes, and we can make them available to directors of public health right across the country.
“Sixty-six expressed an interest in the first instance, I’m now expecting a whole load more.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Hancock said the “much more versatile” lateral flow tests would be rolled out in Nottinghamshire as well as “across Yorkshire, the West Midlands, other parts of the North West and the whole of the North East and other parts”.
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Where fast mass coronavirus testing will be introduced
The Department of Health and Social Care (DSHC) has released the following list of areas to be issued with the antigen lateral flow devices:
Barking and Dagenham
Bexley
Birmingham
Blackburn and Darwen
Blackpool
Bolton
Brent
Bristol
Bury
Calderdale
Camden
City of London
County Durham
Coventry
Darlington
Doncaster
Dudley
East Riding of Yorkshire
Enfield
Essex
Gateshead
Greenwich
Hackney
Halton
Hammersmith and Fulham
Hartlepool
Hertfordshire
Kingston upon Hull
Islington
Kensington and Chelsea
Kingston upon Thames
Knowsley
Lambeth
Lewisham
Luton
Manchester
Middlesbrough
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newham
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Nottingham City
Nottinghamshire
Oldham
Redbridge
Redcar and Cleveland
Richmond upon Thames
Rochdale
Salford
Sefton
South Tyneside
Southwark
St Helen’s
Staffordshire
Stockport
Stockton-on-Tees
Sunderland
Tameside
Tower Hamlets
Trafford
Wakefield
Waltham Forest
Wandsworth
Warrington
Wigan
Wirral
Wolverhampton
The DHSC said Stoke on Trent, Liverpool and Lancashire have already been provided with lateral flow tests before this week.
