UK will have coronavirus testing kits ready in days, health official says

Sharon Peacock, interim director of the National Infection Service, said that millions of the antibody tests had been ordered. (Reuters)
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Updated 25 March 2020
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UK will have coronavirus testing kits ready in days, health official says

  • Tests are designed to establish whether people have previously been infected with coronavirus

LONDON: The UK will have test kits available within days to be sent to households to establish whether people have contracted the new coronavirus and developed immunity, a health official said on Wednesday.

Sharon Peacock, interim director of the National Infection Service, said that millions of the antibody tests had been ordered, and depending on their exact form, some might be able to be administered without leaving home.

The tests are designed to establish whether people have previously been infected with coronavirus, as opposed to antigen tests which show if someone has the virus as they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

"These are brand new products. We have to be clear they work as they are claimed to do," she told lawmakers. "Once they have been tested, and that will happen this week, once the bulk of tests arrive, they will be distributed into the community," she said, adding that the they could be delivered via Amazon.

"Testing the test is a small matter, and I would anticipate that it would be done by the end of this week."

She said there were various different models, and some might might require people to go to a high street chemist.

Peacock said she thought any charge for the tests would be minimal and though she declined to say they would be available by next week, she confirmed that they would be ready in days rather than weeks or months.

Health minister Matt Hancock said on Tuesday the government had bought 3.5 million of the tests.


US ambassador accuses Poland parliament speaker of insulting Trump

Updated 05 February 2026
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US ambassador accuses Poland parliament speaker of insulting Trump

  • Tom Rose said the decision was made because of speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty’s “outrageous and unprovoked insults” against the US leader
  • “We will not permit anyone to harm US-Polish relations, nor disrespect (Trump),” Rose wrote on X

WARSAW: The United States embassy will have “no further dealings” with the speaker of the Polish parliament after claims he insulted President Donald Trump, its ambassador said on Thursday.
Tom Rose said the decision was made because of speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty’s “outrageous and unprovoked insults” against the US leader.
“We will not permit anyone to harm US-Polish relations, nor disrespect (Trump), who has done so much for Poland and the Polish people,” Rose wrote on X.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded the same day, writing on X: “Ambassador Rose, allies should respect, not lecture each other.”
“At least this is how we, here in Poland, understand partnership.”


On Monday, Czarzasty criticized a joint US-Israeli proposal to support Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I will not support the motion for a Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump, because he doesn’t deserve it,” he told journalists.
Czarzasty said that rather than allying itself more closely with Trump’s White House, Poland should “strengthen existing alliances” such as NATO, the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
He criticized Trump’s leadership, including the imposition of tariffs on European countries, threats to annex Greenland, and, most recently, his claims that NATO allies had stayed “a little off the front lines” during the war in Afghanistan.
He accused Trump of “a breach of the politics of principles and values, often a breach of international law.”
After Rose’s reaction, Czarzasty told local news site Onet: “I maintain my position” on the issue of the peace prize.
“I consistently respect the USA as Poland’s key partner,” he added later on X.
“That is why I regretfully accept the statement by Ambassador Tom Rose, but I will not change my position on these fundamental issues for Polish women and men.”
The speaker heads Poland’s New Left party, which is part of Tusk’s pro-European governing coalition, with which the US ambassador said he has “excellent relations.”
It is currently governing under conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, a vocal Trump supporter.
In late January, Czarzasty, along with several other high-ranking Polish politicians, denounced Trump’s claim that the United States “never needed” NATO allies.
The parliamentary leader called the claims “scandalous” and said they should be “absolutely condemned.”
Forty-three Polish soldiers and one civil servant died as part of the US-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan.