Scientists and healthcare professionals have questioned Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “presumptuous” plan to mass test for coronavirus in the UK.

The prime minister hopes that millions of tests for Covid-19, including some that produce results in minutes, can be processed daily.

But experts say there are problems with laboratory capacity to conduct ongoing tests, and the technology for faster tests “doesn’t exist yet.”

BMJ says it has seen leaked notes that the plan could be worth £ 100bn.

Speaking after his announcement, gatherings in England will be limited to six people from MondayJohnson said the government is “working to” increase the testing capacity of 500,000 tests per day by the end of October.

And he said that “in the near future” he wanted to start using testing “to identify people who test negative – who do not have coronavirus and who are not contagious – so that we can allow them to behave in a more normal way, in the knowledge that they are not can infect anyone. “

Johnson added: “We believe there will be new test types that are simple, fast and scalable. They use swabs or saliva and can change results in 90 or even 20 minutes.

“The important thing is that it should be possible to deploy these tests on a much larger scale than any other country has achieved – literally millions of tests are processed every day.”

Johnson said the mass testing program could be ready by the spring and could help the UK avoid a second national isolation.

But Dr. Chaand Nagpole, chairman of the board of the British Medical Association, said it was unclear how the so-called Operation Homing Missile would work – given the “huge problems” currently being seen with laboratory capabilities.

“Failed” strategy

Currently, 150,000 to 200,000 tests are processed every day – but the testing capacity is reported to be 350,000 per day. This includes antibody tests and tests used to assess the spread of the virus.

Earlier this week, Director of the Government Testing and Tracking Program in England. made a “heartfelt” apology for problems with the testing systemexplaining that the laboratories, and not the test centers themselves, were the “tipping point”.

Dr. Nagpole added that the idea of ​​opening a society based on people with negative virus tests should be “approached with caution” due to the high rate of “false negatives” and the potential to miss out on those who incubate the virus.

Dr. David Strain, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Practice at the University of Exeter and Chair of the BMA’s Medical Academic Staff, expressed concern about the technology under discussion.

“The mass testing strategy is fundamentally flawed because it is based on technology that does not yet exist,” he said.

“The prime minister’s proposal that it would be as easy as ‘getting a pregnancy test’ that will give results in 15 minutes is unlikely, if not impossible, in the time frame he proposed to get the country back on track. channel “.

Media playback is not supported on your device

England’s deputy chief physician said the success of the Moonshot operation depends on how it is handled.

Dr. Jenny Harris told ITV’s Robert Peston, “There are several different tests technically available. The difficulty is to try to evaluate all of them and work them out in the program.

“We really want to get back to as normal as possible, and any opportunity to do it with a new testing program or using a different testing technology is definitely a good thing to follow, but it’s not as easy as doing it.

“So I think we need to work on a test and a way to run and use it.”

The UK has plans to eventually run up to 10 million Covid-19 tests a day by early next year – worth over £ 100 billion, which is close to NHS England’s total annual budget. according to the BMJ.

Next month, the new rapid tests will be piloted in classrooms at indoor and outdoor locations in Salford.

The government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the technology needed to be “rigorously tested” and it would be “completely wrong to assume this is a successful dunk.”

Plans for mass testing are coming true as Mr Johnson said the UK “must act” to avoid new isolation as cases of the virus rise in England.

He established a new Rule of Six limiting meetings to six peopleenforced by the police, which may impose fines or make arrests after the UK reported more than 2,000 new cases of coronavirus for the fourth straight day.

Mr. Johnson said the rules “became quite complex and confusing” and the government “simplified and strengthened” them following police and public feedback.

But Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said the new assembly rules reflect that “poor communication was a big part of the problem” with the spread of the virus.

The new Rule of Six means:

• Public gatherings of more than six people in England will be prohibited by law from Monday 14 September.
• The new rule applies to people in private homes, indoors and outdoors, as well as in places such as pubs, restaurants, cafes and open public places.
• This applies to all ages
• The rule does not apply to schools and workplaces, people living together or in the same support bubble, weddings, funerals, and organized team sports.
• The full list of exclusions also includes protests and political activities subject to “rigorous risk assessment”, jury services and emergency assistance.
• People who ignore the police can be fined £ 100 – doubling with each offense to a maximum of £ 3200.