The UK government has bought 3.5m antibody tests for coronavirus, the health secretary has said, promising that frontline doctors and nurses will be able in due course to find out whether they have been infected and are safe to go back to work. Matt Hancock’s statement during the daily government briefing will be welcomed by staff. The absence of any testing for doctors and nurses has deeply upset many who work in the NHS, saying they risk infecting patients and their families and they may needlessly have to isolate at home, unable to care for those sick with Covid-19. But as yet there is no timing on the arrival of the tests, which will not tell people whether they have Covid-19 but whether they have had it, and patients in hospital will take priority over staff. Hancock said he understood why NHS staff in particular and others in public service were so keen to see testing ramped up. The antibody tests “will allow people to see whether they have had the virus and are immune to it and can go back to work”, he said, pointing out that he had been sitting in the House of Commons earlier with Nadine… Read full this story
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