Britain to bring in mass testing to curb spread of COVID-19

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain plans to bring in regular, population-wide testing for COVID-19 so it can suppress the spread of the virus and ease restrictions that have crippled its economy without triggering a second wave in one of the worst-hit countries in the world.

Health minister Matt Hancock said the government was trialling a range of new, faster tests that can give instant results and hoped to roll them out towards the end of the year.

“The mass testing, population testing, where we make it the norm that people get tested regularly, allowing us therefore to allow some of the freedoms back, is a huge project in government right now,” he told BBC Radio.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has been criticised by political opponents and health experts for being too slow to go into lockdown and in rolling out testing to know how far the virus had spread.

Britain now has the highest death toll in Europe, at more than 50,000, and the deepest economic contraction of any major advanced economy.

Hancock said the country’s research laboratories at Porton Down were trialling new saliva tests that do not need to go to a laboratory, so they can deliver faster results.

“There are new technologies coming on track which we are buying and testing now,” he said. “We’ll ramp it up certainly over the remainder of this year.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised mass testing there after its first local COVID-19 case in 102 days.

Widespread testing is seen as one way to reopen the economy, which suffered a record 20% contraction in the second quarter and is expected to see unemployment soar when the government ends its huge job subsidy programme in October. ...