Charlotte Webster-
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced the welcome move to extend coronavirus testing to police, fire service, prison staff, critical local authority workers, the judiciary and DWP
The health secretary told the Commons Health Committee he was able to extend eligibility due to test capacity “increasing” and the coronavirus curve now being “under control”.
“I can today expand the eligibility for testing to police, the fire service, prison staff, critical local authority staff, the judiciary and DWP staff who need it and we’re able to do that because of the scale-up of testing,” he said.
Hancock conceded issues in the past with test capacity, but said “what really matters is what we’re going to do from here on in”. Testing was previously only available to patients, for surveys and for NHS and social care staff, and some that go to LRFs for local urgent need.
Hancock said 18,665 tests had been carried out in the last 24 hours – well short of the government’s target for 100,000 a day by the end of April. Hancock said :
”The aim going forward is to “be able to get back to the position that we can test everybody with symptoms and I anticipate being able to do that relatively soon because we’re increasing capacity as I say”.
“I can tell you that over 50,000 people that work in the NHS have now had tests,” he said.
Pushed on whether he has an estimate for the number of health workers who have been infected, he added: “No I don’t. What I have is an estimate of the proportion who are off work because they either have suspected Covid-19 or a household member does, which is a little over 8%.
“And obviously with the expansion of testing we hope to be able to get that figure down