TLDR:

• 15-minute at-home test.
• Millions on order.
• Delivery starting next week.
• Delivery by Amazon.
• No plans to get the test to the United States.

[www.theguardian.com]

UK coronavirus mass home testing to be made available 'within days'

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 UK government has bought 3.5m tests, which the health secretary, Matt Hancock, mentioned on Tuesday with no suggestion that they would be available to the public so quickly, and is ordering millions more...

The test, which looks like a pregnancy test, involves pricking a finger to produce a drop of blood, which is then analysed by the device. It 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.

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A blood prick? The US has way too many lawyers for it to roll out here.
The next quarterly Amazon earnings report is gonna be through the roof!

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PM Johnson's press conference, which just ended, seemed to tamp that down:

(Prof Chris) Whitty (gov't health advisor) played down the suggestions that millions of coronavirus antibody tests might be available next week. A Public Health England official suggested this at a committee hearing this morning. But Whitty said:
I do not think, and I want to be clear, that this is something that we’ll suddenly be ordering on the internet next week. We need to go through the evaluation, then the first critical uses, then spread it out from that point of view. We need to do that in a systematic way.

The suggestion is that NHS workers, then people with symptoms or already in the hospital, will get the tests first.

This indicates whether you have had it and therefore have the antibodies that should enable you to fight off another attack. It does nothing to prevent you from being infected a first time.

Quote
Steve G.
This indicates whether you have had it and therefore have the antibodies that should enable you to fight off another attack. It does nothing to prevent you from being infected a first time.

That’s because it’s a test, not a vaccine.

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It is what it is.

I'll believe it what the headline reads 'Game-changing COVID-19 test HERE NOW!' I've seen far too much 'soon' applied to these things.,

Antibody tests for COVID-19 have been out there since the at least the end of Feb. I think Singapore was the first to use them. That was about the time our legislatures were secretly selling off their stocks and telling they have it all under control. 10 for 10!

Either Prof Sharon Peacock or the writer of this article has caught a case of Covfefe-45, the symptoms of which include over-promising, over-interpreting, and seeing imaginary lights at the end of imaginary tunnels.

This is potentially good news, but the hype is premature, as it does no one any good if they order millions of tests that don't work.

They will buy some, field test them, and move on from there.

If this is an antibody test it won't help them identify active contagious cases, but it may be possible to certify recovered cases as fit to work and to interact with other people. It will also identify recovered asymptomatic cases, which will advance things considerably.

Recovered medical personnel will then require less dramatic forms of personal protection. Although they will still need to be careful to avoid transferring contamination, they will no longer need to worry about infecting themselves.

Work on this same test is underway in the US :
[www.nytimes.com]

It is not known how long immunity from COVID-19 lasts, nor how accurate this type of testing will be. Lots of questions still but the science is well underway.
I doubt this will be rolled out to the general public anytime soon, including in the UK.

It would be really dangerous to give people a $10 at home blood drop test that tells them they are immune when they are not.