New home testing to track progress of coronavirus infections across the country

The programme, commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care, is being led by a team of scientists, clinicians and researchers at Imperial College London alongside colleagues at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Ipsos MORI.

It will also help identify individuals who may have some immunity to the virus.

Health Minister Lord Bethell said: “Understanding more about the current spread of coronavirus and the prevalence of antibodies is a vital part of our ongoing response to this pandemic.

“This ambitious new testing programme will help us track the rate of the infection now.

And, crucially, it will help identify an antibody test that is accurate and easy to use, and which can give us an indication of how many people have already had the infection.”

The news comes after the Government’s testing tsar has said he is confident the 100,000 daily target for coronavirus tests will be met today.

Professor John Newton, director of public health improvement for Public Health England (PHE), said he was “pretty confident” of hitting the target and that it would put the UK “right up there with countries like Germany”.

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