Millions of tests that can detect if someone has ever had coronavirus will arrive in the UK in the coming weeks, according to the housing and communities secretary.

The antibody tests, which have been described by Boris Johnson as a “gamechanger, could allow people to return to their everyday lives.

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The test can see if someone has certain types of antibodies, which are created in the body to fight infection, in their bloodstream and have therefore contracted the virus.

It is thought that once someone has contracted Covid-19 that they will build up an immunity against the virus.

Housing and communities secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC today that millions of the tests should be arriving in a matter of weeks.

“It will be a very simple one to use and it will be similar to taking a pregnancy test,” he said.

“We are ordering millions of these tests.”

The antibody tests are separate to tests that detect if someone currently has coronavirus.

The advice from the World Health Organisation has been for countries to “test, test, test” for Covid-19 in order to get a clearer pattern of the outbreak.

Testing in the UK has mostly been limited to people admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms, with only 50,000 tests administered in total.

Johnson said this week that the government aimed to test 25,000 people a day.

World Health Organisation (WHO) executive director Dr Michael Ryan told the BBC today that countries to need actively hunt the virus.

He said: “The issue with testing is we need to find suspect cases – we need to find people who have the virus and we need to isolate those patients as quickly as possible.

“The physical distancing measures in place and the lockdowns separate everybody from everybody else. What we need to focus on are those that are sick and those that have the virus and isolate them.

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“If we don’t put in place the strong public health measures now when those restrictions and lockdowns are lifted the danger is the disease will jump back up.”

The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK increased to 5,018 yesterday, while deaths rose to to 233 – an increase of 53 people in 24 hours.