The UK health secretary has said a new online booking system will be key as the government scrambles to meet its 100,000 a day coronavirus testing target by the end of the month. The government announced a major expansion of eligibility for testing – less than a week before a self-imposed deadline – after it was criticised for a low uptake of tests, with the latest daily figure of 23,000 still less than half the total capacity, which has risen to 51,000. All key workers will be able to get a test if they or their employers request one, announced Matt Hancock, as he said widespread testing and tracing of those coming into contact with confirmed cases was the only way to ease physical distancing measures. The list includes NHS and social care workers, police officers, teachers, social workers, those in the justice system, undertakers, some in local government, supermarket and food production workers, journalists, transport workers and some people in utilities and IT. From today, those seeking a test will be able to register via a government website. Companies will also be able to book them for employees.
People who register will receive a text or email with an appointment at one of 48 drive-through centres or can request a home test kit. However, moments after the website went live on Friday morning all the home tests for key workers had already gone. A note on the government website said: “Currently, only drive-through tests available. We’ve issued today’s allocation of home test kits. If you need a home test kit, check back here tomorrow, when more will be available. You can continue if you’re able to visit a drive-through test centre.” Hancock said testing was “slow at the beginning of the month” but claimed the government was ahead of its plan to be able to test 100,000 people a day by May. “The reason why the increase was pretty slow at the start of the month is because we have been building these symptoms to automate the testing, automate the labs and the IT systems that are needed,” he told the BBC. “We are ahead of our internal plan for where we expected the amount of capacity to be and we have got a week left to hit that goal.”
Asked if he thought the 100,000 target would be met, he replied: “I do, yes, but nothing is guaranteed in life.” A help desk has been set up to aid the process, and 48 mobile units run by the army will travel around the country to where they are needed, such as care homes. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Hancock added: “Not as many people have been coming for [a test] as we had expected. Of course that was a problem but it’s a good problem because it means we’ve been able to expand who can get a test faster than we had planned. “They will start in small numbers but that service will grow, and I think that will be a popular service as it increasingly becomes available.”
The government also announced a contact tracing operation would be functioning in a “matter of weeks”. Eighteen thousand people, including 3,000 clinicians, will be recruited to work on contact tracing, supporting an NHS mobile phone app that will automatically log users’ contacts and warn them if they have been close to someone who tests positive. Hancock said these steps would be crucial to holding down the rate and level of transmission of the disease. “They work far better when there are fewer new cases but, if they work as they have done in other countries, then they will be able to hold down the number of new cases with fewer social distancing restrictions, which is why they are so important to get in place in large scale.”