COVID-19: Nearly 50,000 businesses sign up to offer rapid coronavirus testing for their employees

Nearly 50,000 businesses have signed up for the government's free workplace COVID tests, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced. The government claims this is a vital step towards restoring normal life after the pandemic. Tests can give a result within 30 minutes - and NHS Test and Trace analysis suggests they have a specificity of at least 99.9%. Mr Hancock said: 'We have built a huge asymptomatic testing system from scratch, which is an essential part of our plan to reopen cautiously.