Thousands of 15-minute home tests for coronavirus will be delivered by Amazon to people self-isolating with symptoms or will go on sale on the high street within days, according to Public Health England (PHE), in a move that could restore many people’s lives to a semblance of pre-lockdown normality.

Prof Sharon Peacock, the director of the national infection service at PHE, told MPs on the science and technology committee that mass testing in the UK would be possible by next week.

The test, which looks like a pregnancy test and involves pricking the finger to produce a drop of blood, which is then analysed by the device, will first be validated in Oxford to ensure it works as well as scientists hope. That will happen this week, Peacock said, and it will then be available to test healthcare workers and also the general public.

“Several million tests have been purchased for use. These are brand new products. We have to be clear they work as they are claimed to do,” she said. “Once they have been tested this week and the bulk of tests arrive, they will be distributed into the community.”

Amazon has agreed to carry out distribution and the tests will also go on sale in chemist shops.

The antibody test involves pricking a finger and analysing a drop of blood in a device that looks like a pregnancy test. It will only tell the person if they have had Covid-19, not if they currently have it.

Key workers, including NHS doctors and nurses, will be able to make quicker decisions about self-isolating or returning to work on the frontlines of the pandemic with the new game-changing test kit.

Can’t think why people want to test for it .
If you have it you have it.

The test mentioned doesn't test if you HAVE it, it tests to see if you've HAD it .....

And then presumably you are free to go out into the world again?
As if you show positive you cannot get reinfected again or infect
others either??

Donkeyman! 👍👍👍

NHS workers or anyone else would be able to know if they have had the virus and are therefore immune, which means they could resume their normal lives, no longer having to work from home or keep their distance from other people. It is widely thought that having had Covid-19 makes people immune to the disease. There have been cases of apparent reinfection, though they are rare.