[Mandelbrot2004 (OP)]

Testing being important in dealing with COVID seems like an article of faith and all the most successful countries do it more intensively than the less successful ones. It makes perfect sense if you're trying to contain the disease but UK is past that stage. What is the benefit of testing post containment? We can't test everyone, so how does it help us when we're emerging from lockdown?

[evan_au]

We are still trying to keep it outside nursing homes - it spreads like wildfire amongst a very susceptible population once it gets inside.
- That means frequent testing of workers coming into nursing homes, hospitals, prisons, etc

In terms of getting the economy going again, we need an antibody test that will identify who has recovered from the virus, and is now safe to go back to work.

[set fair]

There is the possibility to use it where there is one big and important employer in a town eg a nuclear power plant where they could test everyone regularly. If they make enough tests then they could put whole regions back to work.

[set fair]

The goal for april in the uk was 100,000 tests a day, multiply that by 10 and  everyone in Scotland could be tested weekly and the Scots could almost all go back to work. Sounds crazy? I don't know why this idea isn't being considered. I think we could increase to 10,000,000 tests per day before a vaccine is available. Financially it's a no brainer when conservatively we are loosing £6 billion a week of gdp. It would also provide 100,000 to 200,000 jobs for pub workers and others whose jobs would still be suspended.