Britain plans to bring in regular, population-wide testing for Covid-19 so it can suppress the spread of the virus and limit restrictions that have crippled one of the worst-hit countries in the world, Reuters reported.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government was trialing a range of new, faster tests that can give instant results and hoped to roll them out towards the end of the year.

“The mass testing, population testing, where we make it the norm that people get tested regularly, allowing us therefore to allow some of the freedoms back, is a huge project in government right now,” Hancock told BBC Radio.

“There are new technologies coming on track which we are buying and testing now,” he said. “We'll ramp it up certainly over the remainder of this year.”