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

A CORONAVIRUS home test kit will be available "within days" - from Amazon and Boots, the UK Government has revealed.

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.

Professor Sharon Peacock, director of the National Infection Service at Public Health England (PHE), told the Science and Technology Committee that the public will be able to carry out coronavirus antibody tests at home "within days".

She said a small number of the checks would be tested in a laboratory before being distributed via Amazon and in places like Boots.

Prof Peacock added: "Once we are assured that they do work, they will be rolled out into the community. Testing the test is a small matter, and I anticipate that it will be done by the end of this week”

She said the equipment looked like a pregnancy test and would be low cost, if any charge was applied at all. Downing Street is expected to reveal new details about the new regime later on Wednesday.