Matt Hancock is said to be planning an astonishing rise in the number of coronavirus tests carried out, with a target of four million per day to get the economy back on track.
The Health Secretary is said to be preparing what has been dubbed ‘Operation Moon Shot with the aim of increasing daily tests by around twelve-fold by early next year.
Currently the NHS and private testing centers have a capacity of around 326,000, although because of the current level of infection, only around 190,000 are being carried out.
A massive expansion of the testing regime is seen as a key requirement of easing lockdown measures further as the public continue to be wary of a return to workplaces.
But the scale of the plan will raise some eyebrows after Mr Hancock’s struggles throughout the pandemic to dramatically up the testing rate.
His test and trace scheme, run by Tory peer Baroness Harding, has also come in for major criticism.
‘It is at an embryonic stage and it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work. It is nicknamed Operation Moon Shot because that is what a moon shot is like: it seems very hard but it’s important and we want to land it,’ a source told the Telegraph.
The Health Secretary is said to be preparing what has been dubbed ‘Operation Moon Shot with the aim of increasing daily tests by around twelve-fold by early next year.
A massive expansion of the testing regime is seen as a key requirement of easing lockdown measures further as the public continue to be wary of a return to workplaces
The paper reported that he was seeking a testing scheme that could identify those without symptoms, who are often missed by current regimes.
Last week he promised a widespread screening programme by Christmas to give the country back its ‘freedom’.
Ministers are confident that faster tests – providing results in as little as ten minutes – can be used to fight any resurgence of Covid-19 this winter.
Entire towns or cities will be tested if they suffer a rise in infections. Staff at workplaces which have been found to be breeding grounds for the virus – such as food factories – could also be subjected to regular screening.
In addition, data-tracking will be stepped up to find flare-ups sooner and prevent city-wide lockdowns. The Office for National Statistics’ Covid-19 infection survey, carried out in England every fortnight, will be increased from 28,000 participants to 150,000 by October, before expanding further to cover 400,000 people.
The two-year project is set to cost £750million – but ministers hope this will represent good value if it leads to more targeted action and fewer large outbreaks.
Unveiling the plans last week, Mr Hancock pledged tests would be carried out on ‘an unprecedented scale’ in ‘one of the biggest expansions of surveillance testing we have ever seen’, starting immediately. He said ministers were ‘working as fast as we can’ to ‘make it the norm that people get tested regularly, allowing us therefore to allow some of the freedoms back’.
Earlier this month, two tests which give results in 90 minutes were rolled out with the hope that they could eventually be deployed nationwide.
DNANudge won a £161million order for 5.8million tests, the equivalent of £27 per swab. The other test is made by Oxford Nanopore.
It came as Boris Johnson pleaded with parents to send their children back to the classroom as he takes charge of the drive to get all schools open next week.
The Prime Minister warned that pupils risk permanent damage to their future life chances if they continue to stay away.
Mr Johnson, who has returned to No10 following his summer break, is in a race against the clock to get schools ready and persuade parents they are safe in time for the start of the new term.
The Government faces a big test to deliver on its promise to get all children full-time back following its shambolic handling of A-level and GCSE results.
Many pupils in England have not been to class since March, when schools were closed except to vulnerable children and those of keyworkers.
In a video posted on Twitter this morning, the Prime Minister said: ‘It’s absolutely vital that pupils get back into school in September.
‘It’s vital for their education, it’s vital for their welfare, it’s vital for their physical, and indeed, their mental wellbeing. So let’s make sure that all kids, all pupils, get back to school at the beginning of September.’
Mr Johnson continued: ‘I think parents are genuinely still a bit worried about their children contracting coronavirus. All I can say is the risks are very, very, very small that they’ll even get it, but then the risk that they’ll suffer from it badly are very, very, very, very small indeed.
‘I think it’s vital that parents understand that schools are safe and that teachers have gone to great lengths to get schools ready. They’ve been doing it all throughout the pandemic, by the way.
‘Lots of schools have been open and looking after kids very, very successfully and will take steps to ensure that groups aren’t mixed up, that we have washing of hands and all the other disciplines you need to prevent spread of the virus.’