Although he refused to commit to a date where asymptomatic infected people can be discovered through routine mass testing, Hancock was adamant on this morning’s Today Programme that testing will continue to ramp up through the remainder of this year.

Referencing new innovations in testing that are cheaper and quicker than the current long swab regime, such as the new Israeli saliva test, Hancock said that “there are new technologies coming on track which we are buying and testing now” with the potential for non-lab tests providing results in just ten minutes.

Describing routine mass testing as a “moonshot” project happening in Government at the moment, Hancock confirmed that work is currently underway to bring in testing in airports when reliable results can come back in a matter of minutes. Moonshot isn’t the most reassuring description for something that needs to be in place in order to move back to a greater degree of normality…