Britain’s test-and-trace scheme shows that most people who catch Covid-19 in the country do so through house-to-house transmission, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
He noted that relatively few people catch the virus at work, which is why the United Kingdom is unlikely to follow France in mandating people to wear face masks, he explained on Wednesday.
“We are not currently considering doing so,” he said. Hancock told BBC TV. “The reason is that the evidence from NHS Test and Trace for where people catch the disease is that they, in fact, they catch from one household hitting another household, usually in one of their homes.”
To help limit the spread “for the winter”, the coronavirus infection survey will increase from regular testing of 28,000 people every two weeks in England to 150,000, according to the health secretary. The expansion will take place until October, while the survey will be extended to cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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The government is developing capacity to test for coronavirus “On an unusual scale … undertaking one of the biggest expansions of oversight tests we’ve ever seen,” Hancock added.
Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport has unveiled a new coronavirus testing feature that could lead to the end of the mandatory 14-day quarantine for passengers returning from certain countries.
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