Coronavirus: Questions over how testing pledge will be met

Labour's John McDonnell told BBC Breakfast a breakdown of the type of tests that would make up the 100,000 figure was needed and urged Mr Hancock to provide more detail.

The health secretary told the BBC the 100,000 tests figure was "a goal… for the whole system" including tests for patients, frontline staff, and those who believed they had had the virus.

But he said: "We've got an awful lot of work to do to make it happen."

Mr Hancock told BBC Radio 4's Today programmer it was possible almost all of the 100,000 figure would be swab tests used to determine whether a person currently had corona virus.

But he said it would also include 500 highly-accurate antibody blood tests - to detect whether someone has already had corona virus - performed each day by Porton Down - the military's science laboratory.

He said other types of antibody blood tests for mass screening had so far failed to meet the required accuracy standard.

For the swab tests, Mr Hancock said existing patients would be first in line, followed by "a whole series of critical workers", including medical staff and their families, social care workers, prison and police officers.

Mr Hancock said 35,000 NHS staff were off work due to coronavirus - either because they had symptoms or because they lived with someone who did.

Speaking about his own experience with coronavirus, he told Today: "It was pretty worrying especially on the way down because you know how serious this infection can be.

"But after two days or so which were pretty unpleasant - like having glass in your throat and a cough - thankfully I turned a corner and I've recovered."

'Five-pillar' plan

Speaking on Thursday at the Downing Street corona virus briefing, following days of criticism of the government's record on testing, Mr Hancock announced a "five-pillar" plan to reach the 100,000 target.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Commons home affairs committee, told BBC's Question Time the target was welcome but a "centralised approach" with all tests being carried out by Public Health England would be "just not enough" to meet demand.

David McCoy, professor of global public health at Queen Mary University, said the government's pledge was "a step in the right direction", but cautioned that testing was not a "magic bullet" and called for a less "centralised, top-down uniform" approach.