On Thursday, the Cabinet minister pledged England would hit 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month following widespread criticism of the Government’s testing strategy. Asked by TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley-Brewer to put a number on how confident he is he can deliver on his promise, Matt Hancock said: “We’ve got to do it, we’ve got to do it. There’s a massive amount of work to do. There’s lots of uncertainty and I’m asking people to do things that they haven’t done before. But we made that call on that request on ventilators for instance, and companies that have never made ventilators are now making ventilators.

“And we asked the NHS to build a hospital in nine days with the help of the military and they had never done that before and they stepped up to the plate.

“So now it’s time for the lab science industry to step up to the plate too and do everything that they possibly can.

“And as a nation, we can do this.”

The radio host pressed again for a percentage as she asked: “You think as a nation we can do this, but what percentage chance do you think you’re going to deliver this?”

The Health Secretary replied: “I’m not going to put a figure on it because we’ve got to.”

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“That’s 100 percent then, isn’t it?”, asked the radio host.

Mr Hancock replied: “It’s an I’m determined.”

On Thursday, he said the goal can include antigen tests, which tell people whether they currently have COVID-19, as well as antibody tests to see whether people have previously had the infection.

A version of the latter has yet to be approved for use in the UK but several are undergoing rigorous testing.

Mr Hancock said the commitment to get to 250,000 tests a day – as set out by Boris Johnson – “still stands” but he had wanted to “put a very clear timeline” on the goal to get to 100,000 by the end of the month.

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He said currently no antibody tests have been “pencilled in” as part of the 100,000 figure, but “if we do find one that works, obviously that will be great”.

Mr Hancock said it is “frustrating” the first antibody tests to undergo testing have not worked, but more are coming, with many produced in China and some domestically.

He stressed “money is no object” in the UK’s coronavirus fight, adding work is ongoing to harness expertise in pharmaceutical firms that are not traditional testing companies.

“Money is no object here, what matters is getting the country out of this situation as quickly as possible,” he said, insisting testing is an important tool when looking to ease the lockdown.

Two newly-planned temporary hospital sites have been agreed at the University of the West of England and the Harrogate Convention Centre.

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They will join other sites due to open at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre and Manchester’s Central Complex.

More than 6,000 additional beds are also being created by field hospitals erected in leisure centres and stadiums across Wales.

And the construction of a temporary hospital called the NHS Louisa Jordan is underway in Glasgow.

So far, 163,194 people in the UK have been tested for COVID-19 – roughly 0.2 percent of the population.

Latest data shows 2,921 people were confirmed to have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Wednesday.

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