The health secretary sets out a strategy to achieve a 'significant' increase in testing following criticism of the government.
"I'm not saying we can't do it, but it does seem to be quite difficult.
"As the Secretary of State said, we don't really have a diagnostics industry in this country… and that in itself is not going to be straightforward."Using commercial partners, including universities and private businesses, to establish more swab testingSurveillance to determine the rate of infection and how it is spreading across the countryMr Hancock said the 100,000 figure included both the general public and NHS staff.
The government is working with nine potential providers who are working to produce an antibody test, while it is also looking at whether peopleMr Hancock also vowed that health service staff will be able to get tested for coronavirus"absolutely before the end of the month".The ambitious pledge follows criticism of government efforts to ramp up testing and disquiet that the UK is lagging behind other countries.
Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the commitment from the government was"welcome", but added:"NHS staff will recall that only a few weeks ago Boris Johnson was promising 250,000 [tests] a day."Downing Street said earlier that it had finally reached its target of 10,000 daily tests on Tuesday, with 10,412 carried out on that day in NHS and Public Health England laboratories.
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