August 4

Yet another breathless announcement from Health Secretary for England Matt Hancock. Another 'breakthrough'.

This time it is a new 90-minute test to be 'rolled out' in care  homes and laboratories from next week. It's going to be 'incredibly beneficial over the winter', gushes Mr Hancock.  

The new on-the-spot swab and DNA test will help distinguish between Covid-19 and other seasonal illnesses, he explains.

Getting down to impressive details, he tells us confidently -promises? - that almost half a million tests will be available from next week and millions more will be rolled out later in the year.

Around 5,000 machines providing 6.8 million tests in the coming months, the Department of Health adds.

'They will 'help us to break trains of transmission quickly', says Mr Hancock. All very impressive, especially as present tests take one to two days at best.

But is Mr Hancock's unfailing optimism justified?

A word of caution from Professor Sir John Bell, government adviser on tests. He says that there is no publicly available data on the accuracy of the new tests; they produce the same 'sensitivity' as the current lab based tests.

With his news splashed on front pages Mr Hancock must have been pleased with the publicity, especially as it overshadowed  some government not-so-good news - the July target of regular care home tests for residents and staff has been delayed due to the shortage of testing kits. 

We have heard the same story so many times before with the government trying to blind us with science.

Is this another example of a blitz on a coronavirus surge to obscure regular, unfulfilled promises of breakthroughs?

Postscript

The answer appears to be, yes. 

 

A scientific study, released today, warns that the government's test and trace system in England is not good enough to meet a second coronavirus wave. 

It says only 50% of contacts are being traced  and that it is difficult to know the percentage being tested.

Better results were essential if children were to go back to school safely in September as promised. 

Simon Clarke, the Local Government Minister, said the testing figures were higher and 'maturing all the time'.

He said, 'I am  confident' three times in one sentence, always a cause for concern.