Britain has expanded the number of people who are eligible to be tested for Covid-19 to include the police, fire service, judiciary and others, health minister Matt Hancock has said, as part of its efforts to widen its testing programme.

The government has been criticised for all but abandoning mass testing in mid-March, but Hancock said it was part of the government’s strategy to have mass testing in the community, something that it is getting closer to as Britain builds testing capacity.

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