Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 16th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of mass testing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the UK.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 6th April 2020

The number of people tested in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is set to rapidly increase in the coming weeks. This will help identify whether there is a need for individuals to be self-isolating, as well as those people who have already contracted and fought the disease and are safe to return to work or go out in public. This includes National Health Service staff.

There is now capacity to carry out over 10,000 tests a day and this will rise to 25,000 by the end of April.

Widespread diagnostic testing during a pandemic is enormously important to controlling the spread of infection.

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