Essential workers and family members will be eligible for coronavirus tests from tomorrow as part of a step change in the Government’s COVID-19 battle plan.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock today announced that swab testing for people with symptoms of the disease will be expanded from just health workers into wider society as part of plans to ‘test, track and trace’.
Authorities will push forward with more testing to work out the true size of the UK’s outbreak, as well as tracing contacts of infected patients to prevent surges in cases.
The same key workers whose children have been allowed to remain at school will now be able to order COVID-19 tests – if they feel ill – online or through their employers.
These include teachers and social workers, supermarket staff and lorry drivers, public transport staff, bankers, postal workers, bin collectors and utility workers, for example. Members of their families will also be eligible for the tests.
Britain has 7.1million of these essential workers, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and 42 per cent of them have at least one child under the age of 16.
Mr Hancock said in this afternoon’s briefing ‘I want to make it as easy as possible for people to get a test’ and said there are 31 places around the UK that can do them. People will be able to book the swabs online and will receive results by text.
The scheme marks a long-awaited turning point in the Government’s policy, which has so far been to limit testing to hospital patients and frontline medical workers.
Officials insist the country is on track to meet its target of 100,000 tests per day by Thursday next week, as Mr Hancock had promised, but statistics show that Britain is still only using half of its testing capacity.
Just 23,560 tests were done on 14,629 people yesterday even though there is capacity to do 51,000 tests per day. Testing centres have been seen deserted and Britain still lags behind other countries in the number of tests it is doing.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced plans to open up testing to more members of the public at this afternoon’s coronavirus briefing in Downing Street
Department of Health figures show 22,000 tests were carried out in the UK on Tuesday
The Government’s plans for moving forward have emerged piecemeal today with announcements about population testing, an ‘army’ of contact tracing staff and offering swabs to key workers.
The ‘test, track, trace’ pledge breaks down into three key parts:
TEST: Test millions of essential workers and their families for current infection
Swab tests will be offered to all key workers and members of their family, if they have symptoms of COVID-19, from tomorrow, Hancock announced in today’s briefing.
These tests will involve swabbing the inside of the person’s nose and will tell someone if they are currently infected with the coronavirus. It will not tell if they have already had it.
People will be able to order the tests online on the Government’s website, or through their employer if they don’t have internet access.
After applying, people will receive an email or a text message that same day inviting them to book an appointment at one of 31 drive-through centres around the country or to receive a home testing kit. Mobile testing centres are also being set up in some areas.
Test results, which must be returned from a laboratory, will be sent by text message within 48 hours or within 72 hours of a home test being collected.
Swabs will be run through Government testing labs which, officials say, have the capacity to process 51,000 every day.
Mr Hancock said today: ‘From today, employers of essential workers will be able to go on gov.uk to get a test for any of their staff who need a test.
‘And from tomorrow, any essential workers who need a test will be able to book an appointment on gov.uk themselves directly.
‘This all applies for people in essential workers’ households who need a test too. It’s all part of getting Britain back on her feet.’
The aim of the scaled up testing is to reduce the number of people who have to self-isolate from work if they fear they, or someone they live with, has symptoms of COVID-19.
If the person experiencing the symptoms tests negative the employee should be able to return to work.
On the list of essential workers, alongside NHS and social care staff and volunteers, are prison and court workers, religious leaders, funeral directors, journalists, police and support staff, military personnel and office staff and fire service employees.
Crime agency and border workers will also be included, along with utility workers, transport staff and maintenance workers, childcare workers and teaching staff, social workers, people who produce, sell or deliver food and drink, medical supply chain staff and veterinarians.
Local government and environmental workers will also receive tests, as well as postal staff and financial workers such as bankers.
The Government has so far put in a lacklustre performance on the testing front, not yet managing to rise above 24,000 tests in a day despite a pledge to hit 100,000 per day by next Thursday, April 30.
Widening the criteria for who can get tested will push authorities much closer to this figure.
According to the Insitute for Fiscal Studies there are 7.1million people in the UK – 22 per cent of the entire workforce – who fit the Government’s description of a key worker.
And their families will be included in the new testing scheme, too.
Almost half of those key workers (42 per cent) have at least one child of school age, the IFS data shows, and 46 per cent of them have partners who are in ‘non-key’ work.
There are 31 testing centres around the country which will be used to swab essential workers and their family members. They have the capacity to more than 51,000 tests per day, the Government says
People offered a coronavirus test will be directed to one of 31 drive-through centres around the UK where they will be swabbed and sent home before receiving their results by text in the following days
TRACK: Random population testing for past and present infection to track the spread of the virus
The Department of Health announced today that it will start a widespread public testing scheme, split into two parts.
Thousands of people forming a representative sample of the population will be enrolled into either regular swab testing or antibody testing which will help authorities track where the coronavirus is spreading and where it has been already.
Between 25,000 and 300,000 people will take part in the swab testing scheme which will continue over the next year.
Everyone involved will complete a swab test every month to spot signs of current infection. This is intended to pick up on local outbreaks and see how the virus is circulating as the current crisis comes to an end.
Picking up on these cases may be able to alert authorities to outbreaks in certain areas or to detect when large numbers of people are starting to test positive again and another outbreak is happening.
In a second branch of the tracking project, people in 1,000 households across the country will submit to monthly blood testing to see if they have immunity to the coronavirus.
These tests, called antibody tests or ‘have you had it’ tests, show whether someone has been infected with COVID-19 in the past and recovered. They are most accurate around three weeks or more after someone becomes infected.
Tracking the number of people who have developed immunity can give scientists a clear picture of how widely the virus has spread already, which may affect its ability to spread in the future.
The more people who test positive in antibody testing, the fewer people there are who could get infected in a second outbreak. This is called herd immunity.
TRACE: Trace contacts of infected patients and warn them they have been exposed to the virus
An army of thousands of contact tracers will be trained in the coming weeks to help Britain recover from its lockdown.
The job of these people will be to quiz anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus about who they have been in contact with and where they have been around the time they become ill and the days before it.
The tracers will make a list of people considered to have been put at risk by the patient, and those people will be notified that they might have the coronavirus.
The Government is expected to launch a widespread contact tracing scheme to track down people who have been in touch with infected patients
If contacted by tracers, people will be asked to self-isolate and to be vigilant about changes in their health and about social distancing. If they become ill they will be tested.
If a contact becomes infected the same process begins for them and their social network. The idea is to keep track of how the virus moves through social circles and to try to stay a step ahead of it and prevent wider spread.
Experts expect to be able to track at least 80 per cent of the people a coronavirus patient has come into contact with within 24 hours of diagnosis.
Council staff and civil servants are expected to be at the frontline of this effort, which may require thousands of employees.
UK’s testing farce: One drive-thru centre is only swabbing ‘four people a day’ as ministers bring in the Army and Amazon to ramp up capacity
Britain’s coronavirus testing farce was laid bare again today with claims that a drive-through centre is only swabbing a handful of people every day – with a week to go to meet the Government’s pledge of swabbing 100,000 people a day.
The make-shift facility, in the car park of Port Glasgow Health Centre, Inverclyde, was set up on April 9 with ambitions of testing 100 people a week – who are either NHS workers or family members of medics.
A resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ‘It has been very quiet so far. It looks like they are testing about four people a day. We overlook it and have barely noticed anyone using the centre. It is empty most of the time.’
The Army and Amazon have both been drafted in to help Number 10 scale up its testing response, with soldiers helping to ferry mobile testing units across the UK and the retail giant is delivering swabs to people’s homes.
Damning official figures show Britain is still miles away from reaching its pledge of carrying out 100,000 swabs each day, with Department of Health statistics showing only 22,000 were conducted yesterday.
Downing Street today claimed that Britain has the capacity to carry out 48,000 tests each day – but admitted less than half of that is being used and that there is still a ‘great deal more to do’ to close the gap.
The UK lags behind many other comparable nations in testing, with an analysis showing it has swabbed just six people out of every 1,000 – half the rate of the US and four times lower than Italy.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s target was yesterday savaged by MPs as ‘arbitrary’ and ‘stupid’, after pictures of near-empty testing centres in London, Coventry and Brighton laid bare the true scale of the UK’s swabbing shambles.
Ministers yesterday announced they were expanding the number of drive-through testing sites from 26 to 50. Other key workers will also now be eligible for tests, including transport workers and supermarket staff.
The move came after numerous horror stories of self-isolating and potentially very unwell workers having to travel for multiple hours to get tests only for some of them to be told to come back another day.
Department of Health figures show 22,000 tests were carried out in the UK on Tuesday
A drive-through testing centre in Cardiff is pictured empty this morning
A soldier collects coronavirus testing samples at a centre in Southport this morning
Neighbours of one drive-through testing centre in Inverclyde, Scotland claimed they only swab around ‘four people a day’
A spokesman NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: ‘At present the centre is seeing more patients on a daily basis and has the capacity to meet demand.
‘The Port Glasgow drive-through testing centre opened on Thursday April 9 and tests both symptomatic household members and symptomatic staff as per the current NHS GGC policy.
‘Across NHS GGC we are able to test health and social care staff who are self-isolating as they are symptomatic, or, those with a symptomatic household contact.’
The drive-through test centre runs on an appointment-only basis and it operates Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm.
During testing the person remains in the car and provides a swab.
All staff at the centre wear PPE and a pathway has been put in place to control the flow of traffic and ensure the safety of the public and staff.
Downing Street today said 22,814 coronavirus tests were carried out on 13,522 people up to 9am on Wednesday in England, Scotland and Wales.
But it admitted that capacity is now at 48,273 – meaning Britain is only using up 47 per cent of its supply.
No10 acknowledged there is still a ‘great deal more to do’ to close the gap between capacity and the actual number of tests carried out.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘The number of people we’ve tested has increased in the most recent 24 hours we’ve got figures for.
‘And the gap between the number of people tested and the number of people we’ve tested has closed slightly.
‘But that doesn’t distract from the fact that there’s a great deal more to do if we’re to be able to say we’re making the full use of the capacity we have.
‘Mobile units will visit the care homes and test any residents and staff and separately we’re using Amazon to deliver tests to people’s homes.’
The spokesperson added that around 50 drive-through sites will be ready by end of the month with 28 already open.
Other flagship NHS testing sites have stood empty this week, with pictures showing few people arriving to give any samples.
Both Twickenham rugby stadium and Chessington World of Adventures in west London did not appear to have many patients arriving on Monday.
Coronavirus testing was taking place yesterday in the car park of Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey, pictured
The test centre at Twickenham rugby stadium in West London yesterday appeared to be lying empty
The empty coronavirus testing centre for NHS staff and registered care workers at the Ricoh Arena yesterday
The NHS Covid-19 testing centre in Plymouth, Devon, yesterday is empty when photographed yesterday
An empty drive-through Covid-19 test centre for NHS workers at Brighton and Hove Albion FC’s Amex Stadium yesterday
Yesterday it was revealed that trucks will ferry mobile testing units nationwide to screen NHS and social care workers.
It came amid claims potentially thousands of NHS staff have been unable to get swabbed at the drive-through centres.
The scheme – backed by the military – will transport testing teams to hospitals and care homes across Britain, The Sun reports.
General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, said: ‘We think the innovative idea of pop-ups, rather like mobile libraries, would be a very useful way of going.’
Last week it was revealed coronavirus swab kits would start to be delivered to homes by Amazon in a pilot scheme.
The retail giant is sending send swabs to people’s homes and telling them to take a sample from their throats an hour before they are picked up again.
The results of the test will then be sent by text message. It is understood the pilot scheme – for 5,000 self-test kits – will begin with key workers.
But the Daily Mail reported earlier this week that only 200 of the kits have been sent out so far because of a hold-up by officials.
It comes after it was revealed last night that only one in four care home staff who fear they have coronavirus have been tested.
Managers say their staff face having to make four-hour round trips to test centres which are only accessible by car when many don’t even drive.
It means workers are being left stuck at home self-isolating unnecessarily but unable to return to the frontline where they are desperately needed.
MPs and trade union bosses last night branded the ‘desperately’ low levels of testing in the care sector ‘appalling’.
Last week Mr Hancock said everyone working in social care who needed a test would be able to get one ‘immediately’.
But care workers showing symptoms of COVID-19 must be referred by their employer and then travel to one of the drive-through centres and wait two days for the results.
It means care workers already feeling unwell can face round trips of more than 200 miles to be tested.
They have also been told they are not allowed to take public transport or taxis to the appointment – leaving those without a car no way of receiving the vital tests.
Data collected by the National Care Forum (NCF), which represents nonprofit providers, suggests just 25 per cent of care home staff needing tests have had them.
The NCF collected data from 21 members which together employ almost 16,000 care staff.
Of the 632 residential care staff needing tests only 164 had been tested, while just 19 of the 281 home carers had received a coronavirus test.
Four Seasons Health Care, one of Britain’s biggest private care providers, said many of its employees can’t get to test centres as they don’t drive.
Yesterday the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said three new testing laboratories are now complete.
The Lighthouse Labs in Milton Keynes, Glasgow and Alderley Park in Cheshire will be able to test tens of thousands of samples each day.
Liz Kendall, Shadow Minister for Social Care, last night described the lack of testing system as ‘madness’.
‘There are desperately low levels of testing when we know it’s essential to save the lives of the most vulnerable,’ she said.
‘We’ve heard of appalling cases where care workers in Norfolk have been told to go to Sheffield and those in Peterborough to Stansted Airport.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had earlier set a much more ambitious testing target of 250,000 tests-a-day during a briefing on Mach 19.
But he did not attach a date to when that would be achieved. Official documents by the Department of Health say the target is 25,000 per day.
Britain, with 130,000 confirmed cases of the disease, is testing 6.11 people per 1,000 – 0.5 per cent of its population – according to the latest figures.
The UK sits well below nations with similar rates of infection, such as Italy, Germany and Spain.
All of Britain’s European neighbours are testing more than 20 people per thousand, according to statistics compiled by Oxford-led researchers.
Early testing for COVID-19 is seen by the World Health Organization (WHO) as crucial to bringing the pandemic under control.