Coronavirus: Ex-WHO official reveals ‘crucial’ UK failing – ‘we’d be in a better position’
The UK has now reported 2,352 deaths at the time of writing, as the country heads into the third week of social distancing. Before Boris Johnson instituted a nationwide lockdown, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom claimed countries across the world must continue to test for the virus. The lack of testing has been one of the main criticisms of the Government and former director of the WHO’s cancer programme, professor Karol Sikora has claimed the UK would be in a much better position if more tests had been carried out at the beginning of the outbreak.
He told Express.co.uk: “If we had proper testing, we’d be in a much better position.
“For some reason we haven’t got it. We have to get antibody testing.
“We need to identify who have had the tests.
“If we can identify those who have the disease, it would be crucial.”
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There are currently two types of tests that countries across the world are trying to use during the coronavirus epidemic.
The first is an antigen test, which shows the presence of COVID-19.
The second, is an antibody test which analyses if a person has been infected by the disease and if they are immune.
In order to try and help countries across the world, China published the genetic virus code so laboratories could test its genes in samples from patients.
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Current testing capacity stands at 12,750 a day in the UK.
Germany in comparison has reached a rate of 70,000 per day which some have attributed as to why the country has such a low death rate in comparison to the number of cases.
At the time of writing, there had been 821 deaths from 74,508 cases.
The Government has also ordered up a further 3.5 million anti-body tests for the UK.
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Although the UK is currently working on increasing the testing capacity, only 2,000 NHS frontline workers have been tested so far.
In order to try and increase that, Public Health England has called on all trusts to increase their testing capability where possible.
Speaking today, the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick has admitted 900 staff had been tested over the weekend.
He told ITV News they are hoping to hit 25,000 tests a day by mid-April.
He said: “Testing is essential to our strategy and that is why we are investing so much in it.
“The number of tests in increasing, it is rising.
“This week it will reach 15,000, then 25,000 by mid-April.”
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