LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave some hope today that the government’s ‘moonshot’ Covid-19 rapid mass testing proposal would allow a return to ‘normal life’, including the ability to travel.
Speaking at a Downing Street briefing, the PM said the plan was to test millions of people, possibly on a daily basis, allowing those who test negative to continue their daily activities.
He added that it was the government’s ‘absolute priority’ to allow people to fly ‘in the way they want to’ and said it was looking at ‘all the ways we possibly can’ to liberate people to fly.
However, the government’s scientific advisor Patrick Vallance was more cautious about the possibility for mass testing. He said some increased testing could be achieved with existing technologies, but added that it was unclear if these will work.
“We would be completely wrong to assume this is a slam dunk that can definitely happen,” he said.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said it was ‘likely’ there will be tests ‘of this sort’ at some point ‘in the not-so-distant future’ but he added: “I think it’s important that what we don’t do is pin ourselves to a date and say ‘by this time this will be achieved’ – because that is not the way science moves.”
