5% of wider UK has had Covid-19: Everything we know following today’s Government coronavirus briefing

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was joined by Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty and coordinator of the national testing effort, Professor John Newton as he led the Downing Street press conference on Thursday, May 21.

An antibody surveillance study suggests 17% of people in London and around 5% of the rest of the nation have coronavirus antibodies.

The Government has signed contracts to supply 10 million antibody tests, with the roll-out starting with health and care staff, patients and residents from next week.

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Mr Hancock said: "We've signed contracts to supply in the coming months over 10 million tests from Roche and Abbott.

"From next week we will begin rolling these out in a phased way, at first to health and care staff, patients and residents.

"The UK Government has arranged supplies of these tests on behalf of the devolved administrations and each devolved nation is deciding how to use its test allocation and how testing will be prioritised and managed locally.

"This is an important milestone and it represents further progress in our national testing programme."

Certification systems will be developed for those who test positive in order for people to be given assurances of what they can safely do.

Professor Chris Whitty noted that across the country, the death rate has fallen to that of an average winter and the number of deaths in care homes has now peaked and begun to come back down.

A new coronavirus test which could provide results in around 20 minutes has “proven effective” in early trials, with hopes it could be rolled out soon.

In response to a question from footballer Robbie Savage, Professor Whitty suggested that members of the public may have to play football with rule changes before a vaccine is found.

He told the briefing that having a vaccine on a widespread scale before next year is "very unlikely".

The secretary of state also acknowledged Mental Health Awareness Week, by making a further £4.2million available for vital charities such as Samaritans, Mental Health UK and Young Minds to support people struggling during the crisis.

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