Everyone over the age of 5 with coronavirus symptoms across the UK is now eligible for a test, Matt Hancock has announced.
The announcement came as the health secretary hit back at criticism that the test-and-trace system is dogged by problems, announcing that 21,000 contact tracers had been recruited.
However, questioned in the Commons, Mr Hancock refused to set a date for the tracing programme to start – after Downing Street announced the next stage of lockdown-easing could begin without it.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
And he again dismissed growing criticism that care home residents were put at risk after patients were moved there from hospitals without being tested, helping to explain the high deaths rate there.
“There has been no large-scale removal of people from hospitals into care homes, as been implied by some,” he told MPs. “Those movements have been done with care.”
Mr Hancock also made the boldest boast yet about his record for the number of Covid-19 tests taking place, with tens of thousands still left unused every day even as capacity rises.
He said the benchmark of 100,000 daily tests was hit on Sunday, although this includes tens of thousands “in the post” and not yet administered.
From a tiny number of tests at the start of the pandemic in March, the UK’s programme had been “scaled at breathtaking pace into a global champion”, he claimed.
More follows…
