It comes as pressure mounts to start working towards an exit strategy from the lockdown measures that have been in place since March.

Professor Karol Sikora has been using cheap and self-administer kits from South Korea to test patients for coronavirus.

The kits are made by Sugentech and cost less than £10 each.

Germany have been using the kits to great effect, with one of the best testing rates for COVID-19 in the world.

The UK have been struggling to meet the 100,000 tests a day target set by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Professor Sikora’s private cancer clinic in Reading has seen 30 staff members use the kits to test whether they have contracted the virus.

He spoke to Sky News about the effectiveness of the kits.

He said: “We’re testing the blood of all the staff here for antibodies against coronavirus.

“There are two types: IGM, which peaks at about 10 days after infection, and IGG, which takes four or five weeks before it peaks.

“That’s the problem with these kits and indeed with all antibody testing, it’s the timing and the relationship to the infection.

“We know that there are much better assets in the lab that are expensive that need to be sent off and they’re better controlled, so we’re doing both: the kits which are cheap, less than £7 a kit to do the test, and the more expensive lab tests to validate what we’ve got from the kits.”

Despite the small scale of the initiative it could prove helpful in locating an effective and efficient test system.

The government has been working hard to find a proven antibody test.

Matt Hancock has previously said that he won’t commit to any tests that are unproven to deliver consistent results.

He said on April 2: “Approving tests that don’t work is dangerous, and I will not do it.”

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Dr George Xynopolous, CEO for Medical Diagnosis, runs the laboratory where the validation tests took place and explained why it has been difficult to produce a reliable, effective antibody test so far.

“This is a new virus and everything in medicine takes time.

“It’s not something you can do just by waving a wand, it needs proper verification, it needs trials, it needs a lot of patients to test the method you’re using to ensure it works for everybody.

“Each one of us is individual and we’re different and not one size fits all.”

It follows news that the Health Secretary’s target for testing will not be met.

He said today that the government denies setting a 25,000 a day testing target.

He said: “We committed to 10,000 tests by the end of March, which we hit, then we had previously committed to 25,000 by the end of April – I increased that goal to 100,000.

“We have hit each of the goals that we have set on testing and we have had the capacity continuing to ramp up this month, the demand has been lower over the Easter weekend as staff haven’t wanted to come forward for testing, which is understandable during a long weekend.

“But the goal is still to reach 100,000 by the end of this month.”

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