Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the World Health Organisation recommendation of increased testing for covid-19.

Testing is a crucial part of the United Kingdom’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government is working on multiple fronts to deliver additional testing capacity into the system.

We have committed to boosting National Health Service lab-based testing to at least 25,000 a day by the end of April for patients most in need and are working to increase our total testing capacity.

By increasing our testing capacity, we can provide better care for the most vulnerable patients across the NHS; help key workers get back to work as soon as possible; and provide certainty and reassurance to the wider UK population.

Key worker testing has now started, with hundreds of staff to be tested. This will increase from the end of March and tests will be turned around as quickly as possible.

We are also purchasing new types of tests including antigen tests to identify those who currently have the virus, and antibody tests to identify those who have had the virus and are now immune. We are working hard to bring additional tests to those that need them as soon as possible.