The number of people in the UK who are eligible to be tested for Covid-19 has been expanded to include the police, fire service, judiciary and others, Matt Hancock has said, as part of the efforts to widen the testing programme.
The government has been criticised for all but abandoning mass testing in mid-March, but the health secretary said it was part of the government’s strategy to have mass testing in the community, something that gets closer as Britain builds testing capacity.
“The challenge is that … the epidemic increased exponentially at that point in the middle of March. It meant that the incidence of the outbreak was broad and it meant that we weren’t able to test everybody with symptoms,” Hancock told the Commons health select committee.
“I can today expand eligibility for testing to the police, the fire service, prison staff, critical local authority staff, the judiciary, and DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) staff who need it,” he said.
“Now we’ve got the curve under control, I want to be able to get back to the position that we can test everybody with symptoms and I anticipate being able to do that relatively soon because we’re increasing capacity, as I say.”
As of midday on Thursday, 18,665 tests were carried out in the previous 24 hours, he said.
He added: “I know the history of testing is going to be a long-debated subject. What really matters is what we’re going to do from here on in.”
It follows criticism of a gulf between those being tested and the testing capacity, despite 35,000 tests being available.
Hancock told the committee more than 50,000 NHS workers have now been tested for coronavirus.
