Coronavirus: Government asks private industry to help ramp up testing
(WorldNews Politics)

Government is appealing for help from private industry to dramatically ramp up testing for coronavirus, as pressure mounted on Boris Johnson over the failure of official attempts to accelerate checks for frontline NHS staff. As ministers faced a deluge of criticisms over figures showing just 2,000 of the estimated 125,000 self-isolating frontline medics have been tested for Covid-19, health secretary Matt Hancock held a virtual meeting with the pharmaceutical industry to ask for help in scaling up capacity. On his return to Westminster today after self-isolating for seven days with coronavirus symptoms, he is expected to set out a five-point plan to try to restore momentum to the...