UK peak likely to come slightly sooner – health minster

Britain’s ‘peak’ for coronavirus infections will be slightly sooner than previously thought, the UK’s health minister has said, but it is very very sensitive to how many people continue to follow the social distancing guidelines.

Hancock went on to say he was open to people and companies contacting him with ideas for how to resolve the problems and questions which his department was attempting to solve.

“I saw what happened with the ventilators when we got non ventilator companies in to build companies side by side with the smaller but expert ventilation companies,” he added.

The UK still does not currently have a reliable home test at the moment to carry out home blood tests that would enable people to know if they have had coronavirus, Britain’s health secretary has said.

Matt Hancock has been pressed in morning interviews on how many of the new UK target of 100,000 tests a day – up from much lower figures – would be composed of the blood, or antibody test.

Hundreds of formulas and details for proposed ways of doing the antibody tests had been sent in to the government by experts but a good enough one has not been found.