The government has unveiled a five-point coronavirus action plan in a bid to achieve 100,000 COVID-19 tests per day in England by the end of April.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock set out the strategy to achieve a "significant" increase in testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, at the government's daily news conference.

It comes as new figures from NHS England showed the first death of someone diagnosed with the virus actually happened in February - one week before previously thought.

The statistics also revealed more insight into the age profile of the patients with 52% of those who have died were aged over 80.

Testing is vital in tracking the virus and giving the UK hope of ending the current lockdown, but opposition parties and some experts expressed scepticism and called for more detail.


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The "five-pillar" plan involves:

Swab testing at Public Health England and NHS laboratories;

Using commercial partners, including universities and private businesses, to establish more swab testing;

Introducing antibody blood tests to determine whether people have had COVID-19;

Surveillance to determine the rate of infection and how it is spreading across the country;

Building an "at-scale" diagnostics industry to reach 100,000 tests by the end of April.

The promise comes after it was confirmed that another 569 people have died in the UK after contracting coronavirus - bringing the total number of deaths to 2,921.

Mr Hancock said the 100,000 figure included both the general public and NHS staff.

And it would be a combination of antigen tests (which shows whether somebody currently has the virus) and antibody tests (which shows if someone has had COVID-19).

Mr Hancock also said the government remained committed to eventually carrying out 250,000 tests a day, something Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken of achieving in the past.

The government is working with nine potential providers who are working to produce an antibody test, while it is also looking at whether people could be given immunity certificates to prove they are able to resume their normal activities.

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But the health secretary said he would only approve tests that worked, declaring: "Approving tests that don't work is dangerous and I will not do it."

Mr Hancock also vowed that health service staff will be able to get tested for the coronavirus "absolutely before the end of the month".

He added: "With 5,000 tested since [staff testing] started at the weekend we've clearly made significant progress."

It also announced at the news conference that £13.4bn in historical NHS debt would be written off to help hospital trusts fight the virus.

Mr Hancock, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week and came out of self-isolation on Thursday, said he returned "redoubled in my determination to fight this virus with everything I've got".

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"And we will strain every sinew to defeat it once and for all," he said.

"And I will stop at nothing to make sure that frontline staff have the right equipment so that they are safe and can have the confidence they need to do their jobs."

The ambitious pledge follows criticism of government efforts to ramp up testing and disquiet that the UK is lagging behind other countries.

Mr Hancock addressed this criticism during the news conference.

He said the fact that the UK lacked a large diagnostics industry meant it was having to start from a "lower base" than the likes of Germany, which is carrying out 70,000 tests a day.

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The health secretary said a country-wide shortage of swabs had been "resolved", but there was still a "global challenge" around sourcing the reagent chemicals needed for the tests.

Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the commitment from the government was "welcome", but added: "NHS staff will recall that only a few weeks ago Boris Johnson was promising 250,000 [tests] a day.

"We look forward to seeing the details of how this commitment will be delivered, especially for NHS and care staff for whom this is now a pressing and urgent priority."

Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, said ministers had been "disgracefully slow" on increasing testing.

"Moves now to increase testing are welcome, and we hope they succeed, but NHS workers' confidence has been shaken after previous promises from the secretary of state that have not been delivered," he added.

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Keith Plumb, a chemical engineer on the board of trustees at the Institution of Chemical Engineers, said reaching 100,000 daily tests would be a "herculean task".

"Setting up what appears to be effectively a new industry within the UK in such a short amount of time doesn't really seem to be that practical," he told Sky News.

"I'm not saying we can't do it, but it does seem to be quite difficult."

Downing Street said earlier that it had finally reached its target of 10,000 daily tests on Tuesday, with 10,412 carried out on that day in NHS and Public Health England laboratories.

Mr Johnson's official spokesman said 2,800 members of NHS staff have been tested at drive-through facilities, although "significant numbers" had also been tested at NHS and PHE labs.

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Speaking during a conference call with journalists earlier on Thursday, the spokesman added: "We acknowledge that more needs to be done in relation to testing.

"We need to be testing more people and we need to be making progress very quickly."

An increase in testing of NHS staff would potentially enable thousands of them who are self-isolating, because they or their family members have shown symptoms, to return to work once they know they are clear of the disease.

Mr Hancock said the latest figures showed that 5.7% of doctors were currently absent because of COVID-19.

In the wake of complaints about a shortage of swabs, the NHS has developed a new specification for the swabs to carry out the tests which has been validated and shared with potential manufacturers.

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A large-scale testing laboratory opened in Milton Keynes last week, with two more opening next week in Cheshire and Glasgow to cover the north of England and Scotland.

Downing Street said on Thursday that Mr Johnson was still showing coronavirus symptoms, having tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

The PM's seven days of self-isolation end on Friday, but it is unclear whether he plans to leave the Downing Street flat where he has been staying.

He appeared briefly on the steps of Number 10 to join in the second Clap for our Carers event on Thursday, the first time he has been seen in person since announcing his coronavirus diagnosis.