MATT HANCOCK: Covid tests at work can pave way to a brighter year

There are lots of reasons to feel optimistic about the year ahead, especially now that one in five adults have had their first Covid vaccine.

As we look to the future, we can also take heart from the early success of the Government’s workplace testing programme.

Starting with big firms like John Lewis and Royal Mail, rapid testing at work has saved tens of thousands of employee hours – and saved businesses hundreds of thousands of pounds.

While we ask people to stay at home, I know it’s not always possible. So for all those who can’t work from home, workplace testing offers a way forward as we look to build back better after Covid – and I’m so pleased The Mail on Sunday’s Tests at Work campaign is encouraging more businesses to take up our offer of rapid testing for staff.

From today, we’re expanding that offer to all businesses with more than 50 employees – the backbone of the British economy. I know every firm wants to keep its workforce out of harm’s way. I also know that staff need the peace of mind that if they do need to leave their home for work they can keep themselves and their families safe.

The challenge, of course, is that around one in three people with coronavirus show no symptoms at all but can still pass it on. To break the chains of transmission, I want us to normalise testing and make it part of our routine.

Happily, that’s easily possible with new technology. Innovative Covid tests known as lateral flow tests are a proven success in this fight.

They give results in just 30 minutes and they save lives. They’ve already detected more than 54,000 positive cases which would otherwise not have been found.

I take one, twice a week. So do millions of people in our NHS and schools.

Workplaces that have introduced regular testing find they can plan with more certainty and spot cases before they take out a whole team.

For our small and medium-sized businesses, rapid testing can make a massive difference. If you show up to work and test positive, you can isolate immediately. If you test negative, you simply get on with your day.

Even as we test to work, it’s imperative that everyone who can work from home still does so.

But where that’s impossible, I join with The Mail on Sunday in urging businesses and employees to take up the offer of rapid testing. You can find more information at gov.uk/get-workplace-coronavirus-tests.

While vaccines show us the way out, and rapid testing shows the way forward, our most powerful weapon must still be the actions of every one of us.

Even with the end in sight, we have to keep up those common- sense steps, like washing our hands, covering our faces, and maintaining social distancing.

Taken together, it promises a better and safer year ahead for everyone.