Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 20th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend COVID-19 antigen testing to the entire population.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 20th August 2020

Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms can get a free test and must get tested as soon as their symptoms develop. The swab test takes less than a minute, is pain free and results from test sites are received within a day of the test being administered.

The Government has put in place the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history. The programme achieved the capacity to deliver 100,000 tests a day by 30 April, 200,000 tests a day by 30 May and is now capable of delivering more than 300,000 tests a day. We are committed to increasing this capacity to 500,000 by the end of October.

Reticulating Splines