Britain aims for virus testing success after a wobbly start

British government anunced Thursday that it is investing in a coronavirus test that gives results in as little as 20 minutes, touting it as latest milestone in efforts to take UK to front of global pack in testing for COVID-19.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said government is expanding trials of two new rapid tests — a simple -swab saliva test and ar that gives results in minutes.

Britain also is examining feasibility of repeat testing of people without symptoms, something Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said could lessen need for social distancing measures.

government says it will spend up to 500 million pounds ($660 million) on efforts to achieve mass population testing, a project it has named “Operation Moonshot.” “Short of a vaccine, this is best chance we have of reducing social distancing whilst controlling virus, especially with winter coming, with all challenges that brings,” Hancock told BBC.

Britain lacked mass testing capacity when its virus outbreak began and in March abandoned efforts to track and test contacts of all people with confirmed cases, a decision authorities w say y regret.

UK has hugely expanded its testing capacity since n. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms is eligible for a test, eir at home or at a testing center, and officials say most get results within 24 hours.

But BBC reported Thursday that people are sometimes being directed to drive-through centers hundreds of miles away when y enter ir postcodes into government's website.

Critics also say British government is still t doing eugh to find and isolate people with coronavirus.

government says it has capacity to perform almost 350,000 tests each day, though only about 180,000 a day are getting processed. It's goal is to reach capacity for 500,000 tests a day by end of October.

A nationwide test-and-trace program designed to isolate those who h contact with infected individuals has reached 325,000 people but is still failing to find almost a third of contacts in confirmed cases. A phone app once touted by government as a key contact-tracing tool is still in testing st.

Hancock insisted system was working well despite some “operational challenges from time to time.” But Alan McNally, director of Institute of Microbiology and Infection at University of Birmingham, said he thinks government acted too slowly. Britain's official coronavirus death toll is more than 41,500, highest in Europe.

“I think time was right to think about scaling up testing to wider community and asymptomatic testing over summer when we were relatively COVID-secure, kwing that autumn and winter would come” and bring a possible second wave, McNally told BBC.