Matt Hancock today vowed to bring in population-wide mass coronavirus testing – but failed to offer a time frame and referred to the project as a ‘moonshot’.
The Health Secretary told the BBC’s Today programme that the government would bring in mass testing and ministers were working as ‘fast as we can’ on the scheme that is crucial for a further return to normality.
His pledge follows months of calls from top experts and politicians to set-up a mass-testing programme. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair warned it was the only way to prevent a second wave.
But Mr Hancock was vague on details when he revealed the government was trialling new tests, saying some give results in just 10 minutes and rely on saliva — cutting out the need to have long swabs stuck down throats. Current tests can take several days to produce results because they need to be sent to laboratories.
Around 100,000 people are being tested for coronavirus each day — but academics have warned it needs to be scaled-up massively to cope with the coughs and colds that will arise this winter.
Mass-testing allows ministers to see exactly where outbreaks are and stops infected people unknowingly spreading it. Rapid coronavirus tests could also mean travellers do not need to quarantine for the full two weeks, if they come back negative.
Mr Hancock also defended the government’s controversial choice to install Tory peer Baroness Dido Harding as the head of the new agency replacing Public Health England.
Experts said it made as ‘much sense as Chris Whitty [England’s chief medical officer] being appointed a head of Vodafone’. Baroness Harding is the former chief executive of TalkTalk, where she oversaw one of the worst data breaches in the UK.
But Mr Hancock told BBC News Baroness Harding — whose husband is a Tory MP — was ‘simply the best person who could be doing this job now’, claiming Number 10 is ‘very lucky’ to have her in the role.
And he denied the decision to scrap the beleaguered PHE would be a distraction in the fight against the pandemic. He added the reorganisation was ‘absolutely the best thing to do’.
The Health Secretary said it was an ‘incredibly important’ project, claiming ministers were working as ‘fast as we can’ to achieve the ‘moonshot’ and reopen parts of the economy
Chain of command: Baroness Dido Harding will report directly to the health secretary after her appointment as interim chief of the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP)
Baroness Harding’s husband, Tory MP John Penrose, is a board member of the think tank ‘182’ which has published several reports calling for PHE to be abolished
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 today, Mr Hancock said mass-testing was a ‘really, really important drive that we have across government’.
He added: ‘At the moment, you have to send off a test to a laboratory, get it back and all the logistics of that takes time. It is also quite expensive.
‘There are new technologies coming on track which we are eyeing and testing now.’
Mr Hancock added: ‘Some of them [the tests] you only have to use saliva rather than having a swab all the way down the back of your throat, which means that anybody can administer it or self administer it much easier.
‘Some of them they don’t need a lab on the test which means you don’t have to send it off and get it back — with the best ones you get the results in 10 minutes.’
When asked about when it would be available, he refused to answer and replied: ‘I am not going to put a firm deadline on it.’
He added: ‘I have said very clearly that we are ramping it up over the remainder of this year.
‘The answer is we are going as fast as we can, working with dozens of companies, both home grown and international to get the very best testing capacity.
‘This moon shot to have testing ubiquitous and available to reopen all sorts of things, to reduce the burden of the quarantine arrangements which nobody wants to have in place, to allow us to reopen parts of the economy, that is an incredibly important project within Government right now.’
Mr Hancock also defended the timing of axing Public Health England to form a new National Institute for Health Protection.
He told Sky News: ‘My responsibility is to make sure that the pandemic response is the best it possibly can be and that’s why I’ve taken this decision now.
Around 100,000 people are being tested for coronavirus each day — but academics have warned it needs to be scaled-up massively to cope with the coughs and colds that will arise this winter
‘Actually one of the lessons from the crisis I think for me is that if something is the right thing to do then delaying doing it is the wrong thing.
‘We’ve now got Public Health England, NHS Test and Trace, we’ve got a new Joint Biosecurity Centre, working separately so in order to keep people safe, in order to have the very best response, we need to bring these organisations together now.
‘I hope this gives a long-term future for all those working on the pandemic response.’
And he defended the decision to install Tory peer Dido Harding as the head of the new NIHP.
Baroness Harding, who was made a peer by David Cameron, was appointed despite her recent track record in charge of the government’s disastrous contact tracing scheme and mobile app that was delayed for months amid bungles over technology.
Her husband, Tory MP John Penrose, is also board member of the think tank ‘1828’ which has published several reports calling for PHE to be abolished.
Mr Hancock rejected allegations of ‘cronyism’, telling Times Radio: ‘I ask people to do these important, big jobs who I think are best qualified to do it.’
Asked if she is qualified for the role, he told BBC News: ‘Absolutely, she’s simply the best person who could be doing this job now.
‘She has enormous experience both in the private sector running very large organisations and this is a very large organisation now with a budget of over £10billion.
‘Also in the NHS she’s been the chair of NHS Improvement for the last over three years, she’s been expanding and building that testing capacity, the test and trace system that is so effective in finding people now and asking them to self-isolate.’
He added: ‘So we’re very lucky to have her giving this public service at this critical time.’
In an interview with LBC this morning, Mr Hancock said: ‘Anybody with enormous experience like Baroness Harding will have had to face challenges in their professional career.
‘I think having somebody with enormous experience, both running very large organisations in the private sector and as the chair of the board of NHS Improvement last three-and-a-half years, she has what it takes to lead this organisation, to get it set up.
‘The key thing now is to make sure that there is a seamless impact on the coronavirus response, actually that that is strengthened, and I think her leadership will be an important part in that.’
He added: ‘Ultimately it is ministers who are responsible for all decisions that governments make. That’s why I come on the radio to talk to you and answer questions, and am accountable in Parliament.
‘The whole media discussion around this about ‘who is responsible?’ I think is frustrating because frankly I am responsible for what happens in the health and social care areas. Of course I am.’
Mr Hancock has faced scathing criticism after he axed PHE. Experts accused the Government of using PHE as a scapegoat.
The remains of PHE will be subsumed into the NIHP’s single command structure, which will also involve the Joint Biosecurity Centre — an agency created in May and ran out of the Cabinet Office.
Mr Hancock said the institute, which began work yesterday and reports directly into him, would have a ‘single and relentless mission: protecting people from external threats to this country’s health like biological weapons, pandemics and infectious diseases of all kinds.’
Mr Hancock said that the formation of the NIHP gave the UK ‘the best chance of beating this virus and spotting and tackling other external health threats now and in the future.’
PHE has been blamed for a litany of errors in the UK’s Covid-19 response, including miscounting thousands of virus deaths and failing to ramp up testing capacity quick enough.
Local public health directors have also criticised the beleaguered Government agency for refusing to share regional infection data, with one describing the body as ‘an obstructive pain in the a**’.