By Karim El-Bar
LONDON (AA) – Anyone with symptoms is now eligible for a COVID-19 test, the British health secretary announced on Monday, as health authorities said a further 160 people had died of coronavirus across the UK over the past 24 hours.
The Department of Health reported: “As of 9am 18 May, there have been 2,682,716 tests, with 100,678 tests on 17 May. 1,887,051 people have been tested of which 246,406 tested positive.
“As of 5pm on 17 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 34,796 have sadly died.”
On nationwide testing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Every day we are creating more capacity and that means more people can be tested, and the virus has fewer places to hide.
“Today, I can announce to the house that everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible for a test. That applies right across the UK in all four nations from now.
“Anyone with a new continuous cough, a high temperature or the loss or change of sense of taste or smell can book a test.”
Wide-sale testing is viewed as essential to lifting the lockdown and reopening the economy, and the government has been criticized for not testing enough people quickly enough.
As the UK government encouraged workers in England who cannot work from home to travel to work, rail operators began to run more trains on Monday.
Services increased from 50% of the normal timetable to 70%, but capacity will be reduced to 10% of normal levels.
This is to ensure social distancing. Passengers are also being urged to wear face masks and avoid non-essential travel.
Even with these measures in place, unions are wary of the speed with which the government is lifting the lockdown and the impact it may have on workers.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport said: “We are opposed to the early relaxation of lockdown measures and believe that non-essential workers should avoid using trains. When people absolutely must use a train, there should be new compulsory protections.”
Since the virus emerged in China last December, it has spread to 188 countries and regions.
The global death toll from the novel coronavirus has exceeded 316,200, with more than 4.75 million confirmed cases, and recoveries topping 1.75 million, according to a running tally by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.
