en-us	With Britain’s hospital death toll from Covid-19 rising by 563 in a single day on Wednesday, Boris Johnson is facing mounting criticism over the government’s failure to put in a place an adequate testing regime to manage the crisis. 
zh-cn	仅周三一天，英国各医院的新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）患者死亡人数就增加563人。英国首相鲍里斯•约翰逊(Boris Johnson正因英国政府未能建立完善的检测机制以应对新冠危机而面临越来越多的批评。 

en-us	Testing was used aggressively in countries like South Korea and Singapore to stem the spread of coronavirus, and is also vital in establishing whether health workers have been infected and are able to work. 
zh-cn	韩国和新加坡等国正通过大规模检测来遏制新冠肺炎的蔓延，而且检测对于确定医护工作者是否被感染以及能否工作也至关重要。 

en-us	But, according to the latest daily data, only 7,511 people were tested in England. 
zh-cn	然而，根据最新的每日数据（3月31日数据——译者注），在英格兰，只有7511人完成了检测。

en-us	In contrast, Germany is carrying out some 50,000 tests a day. 
zh-cn	相比之下，德国每天检测约5万份样本。

en-us	Downing Street admitted on Wednesday that only 2,000 out of an estimated 1.2m NHS staff had so far been tested. 
zh-cn	英国政府周三承认，到目前为止，在英国国家医疗服务体系(NHS)约120万名员工中，只有2000人接受了检测。 

en-us	Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary, argues that mass community testing is needed as an exit strategy from Britain’s economically catastrophic lockdown. 
zh-cn	英国前卫生大臣杰里米•亨特(Jeremy Hunt)认为，大规模社区检测是必要的，它是英国封锁政策的退出策略。

en-us	Comprehensive testing for coronavirus — including the identification of contacts — was part of Britain’s initial effort to contain the outbreak, but it was abandoned on March 12 when NHS chiefs decided to stop testing people with mild symptoms of the virus. 
zh-cn	新冠病毒全面检测（包括确认接触者）是英国控制疫情最初举措的一部分，但在3月12日这一政策被抛弃，当时NHS负责人决定停止对轻症患者进行检测。 

en-us	The change in policy came despite Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, saying that as few as 5,000 people in Britain — 0.00008 per cent of the population — might be infected at that point. 
zh-cn	英国首席科学顾问帕特里克•瓦兰斯(Patrick Vallance)表示，当时英国可能只有5000人（占英国人口的0.00008%）被感染，但当局当时还是改变了政策。 

en-us	The official view was that mass infection was inevitable with projections of 40m people contracting the disease; Britain therefore gave little priority to building up mass testing capacity early on in the outbreak, unlike other countries including South Korea and Germany. 
zh-cn	官方观点认为，人口的大规模感染是不可避免的，预计将有4000万人感染这种病毒；因此，与包括韩国和德国在内的其他国家不同，英国在疫情初期没有把建立大规模检测能力当作优先任务。 

en-us	Sir Patrick said on March 12: “It’s not possible to stop everyone getting it and also it’s not desirable because you want some immunity in the population to protect ourselves in future,” he said. 
zh-cn	3月12日，帕特里克勋爵表示：“阻止每个人感染是不可能的，也不是理想的情况，因为我们希望人群中一些人获得免疫力，以便在未来保护我们自己。” 

en-us	But on March 16 the government abruptly changed tack when warned by scientists at Imperial College that its “mitigate” strategy could lead to 250,000 deaths and see the NHS overwhelmed. 
zh-cn	但3月16日，英国政府突然改变策略，当时帝国理工学院(Imperial College)的科学家警告政府称，英国政府的“缓和”策略可能导致25万人死亡，并导致NHS崩溃。 

en-us	But this sudden shift in approach meant the UK did not have sufficient testing capacity to aggressively suppress the disease, nor did it have anywhere near enough tests to check the health of frontline NHS staff. 
zh-cn	但这种策略的突然转变意味着，英国没有足够的检测能力来大规模遏制这种病毒，也没有足够的检测装置来检查NHS一线医务工作者的健康状况。

en-us	And the rest of the world was now engaged in the same race to source tests. 
zh-cn	全球其他地区现在也在争相采购检测装置。 

en-us	What are the obstacles to scaling up UK testing? 
zh-cn	扩大英国检测的障碍是什么？ 

en-us	The NHS and Public Health England set up a centralised testing system with limited capacity. 
zh-cn	NHS和英格兰公共卫生署(Public Health England)建立了一个能力有限的集中检测系统。 

en-us	Now that the UK government is pushing for a huge expansion — enlisting university and private labs as well as a new public testing centre in Milton Keynes — there is a worldwide scramble to obtain the equipment and chemicals required as well as trained staff. 
zh-cn	英国政府正推动扩大检测范围（征用大学和私人实验室以及位于米尔顿凯恩斯的新的公共检测中心）之际，全球都在争相获得检测所需的设备和试剂以及经过训练的医务人员。 

en-us	Greg Clark, Tory chairman of the Commons science committee, said: “It is unclear why PHE has chosen to centralise testing when countries like Germany and South Korea have instead mobilised a large number of labs. 
zh-cn	英国下院科学委员会(Commons science committee)主席、保守党人格雷格•克拉克(Greg Clark)表示：目前尚不清楚，在德国和韩国等国动员大量实验室展开检测之际，英格兰公共卫生署为何选择集中检测。

en-us	So far, the centralised approach isn’t working.” 
zh-cn	目前，集中检测的方法没有奏效。” 

en-us	Disentangling the causes of shortages and bottlenecks is hard, because many materials are required to carry out the PCR — polymerase chain reaction — tests that are the mainstay of identifying Covid-19. 
zh-cn	找出短缺和瓶颈的原因是困难的，因为聚合酶链式反应(PCR)检测需要很多材料——PCR检测是识别新冠肺炎的主要手段。 

en-us	Some are genuinely in short supply and some subject to distribution bottlenecks. 
zh-cn	有些材料确实供应不足，还有一些面临分销瓶颈。

en-us	Some can be replenished quickly, others require complex and time-consuming synthesis. 
zh-cn	一些可以迅速得到补充，还有一些则需要复杂且耗时的合成。 

en-us	Many hospital, academic and private labs are now turning to help with Covid-19 diagnosis, as doctors complain that they can sometimes wait for seven days for the results to come back. 
zh-cn	很多医院、学术和私人实验室现在都在帮忙进行新冠肺炎诊断，与此同时医生抱怨称，他们有时要等上7天才能得到结果。

en-us	“It’s a borderline farce,” said one doctor in Hertfordshire. 
zh-cn	“这简直荒唐，”赫特福德郡的一位医生表示。 

en-us	But ramping up lab capacity is far from straightforward, explains Stephen Baker, professor of molecular microbiology at the University of Cambridge, whose own lab is being converted to help nearby Addenbrookes Hospital. 
zh-cn	但剑桥大学(University of Cambridge)分子微生物学教授斯蒂芬•贝克(Stephen Baker)解释称，提高实验室检测能力远非易事。贝克自己的实验室正在被改造，以帮助附近的阿登布鲁克斯医院(Addenbrookes Hospital)。 

en-us	“There are multiple issues with setting up new diagnostic testing capacity outside of regular diagnostic laboratories,” he said. “Research laboratories have different approaches, equipment and staff. 
zh-cn	“在常规诊断实验室以外建立新的诊断检测能力存在很多问题，”他表示，“研究实验室的方法、设备和人员都不同。” 

en-us	“There is nothing more dangerous at the moment than reporting incorrect negative or positive results to staff or patients.” 
zh-cn	“现在，没有什么比向医务人员或患者报告错误的阴性或阳性结果更危险的了。” 

en-us	How serious is the shortage of chemical reagents? 
zh-cn	化学试剂短缺有多严重？ 

en-us	PCR testing requires reagents to extract viral genes from the patient sample obtained by swabbing and then amplify them so they can be more easily detected. 
zh-cn	聚合酶链式反应检测需要用试剂从患者的拭子样本中提取病毒基因，然后进行扩增，让病毒更容易被发现。

en-us	The test involves biochemical primers and probes (synthetic fragments of genetic material) and two enzymes called reverse transcriptase and DNA polymerase. 
zh-cn	检测装置包括生化引物和探针（遗传物质的合成片段）以及两种酶，即逆转录酶和DNA聚合酶。 

en-us	“It's true that manufacturers are struggling to keep up with demand,” said Doris-Ann Williams, chief executive of the industry body the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association. 
zh-cn	英国体外诊断协会(British In Vitro Diagnostics Association)首席执行官多丽丝-安•威廉斯(Doris-Ann Williams)说：“制造商确实很难满足需求。

en-us	“It's not true that there's a shortage of the reagents per se.” 
zh-cn	试剂本身并不短缺。” 

en-us	She said the UK government is talking to manufacturers and also looking at alternative routes of supply, with smaller companies potentially able to fill the gap with their products and reagents that could be used on standalone PCR machines. 
zh-cn	她表示，英国政府正在与制造商谈判，同时也在寻找替代供应渠道，较小型企业也许能够用自己可用于独立聚合酶链式反应机器的产品和试剂填补缺口。

en-us	Three of the main testing players worldwide are Roche, Abbott and Thermo Fisher Scientific. 
zh-cn	全球检测的三大主力是罗氏(Roche)、雅培(Abbott)和赛默飞世尔科技(Thermo Fisher Scientific)。 

en-us	But Al Edwards of the University of Reading School of Pharmacy said substituting material was not straightforward. 
zh-cn	但是雷丁大学药学院(University of Reading School of Pharmacy)的阿尔•爱德华兹(Al Edwards)表示，替代材料并不简单。

en-us	“To make that test accurate, you need to keep the ingredients fixed,” he said. 
zh-cn	他说：“为了使检测准确，你需要保持配料不变。

en-us	“Although other versions might work it’s not easy to simply switch to a different type. 
zh-cn	虽然其他版本可能有效，但简单地切换到不同的类型并不容易。

en-us	There can be tiny changes that make the test fail.” 
zh-cn	可能会有微小的变化导致检测失败。” 

en-us	Why can some people get privately tested? 
zh-cn	为什么有些人可以私下检测？ 

en-us	Anyone wondering why footballers and celebrities can get tested for the coronavirus but not healthcare workers will find the answer in the burgeoning private market for home testing. 
zh-cn	如果有人想知道为什么足球运动员和名人可以获得新冠病毒检测、而医疗工作者不行，答案在家庭检测这个蓬勃发展的私人市场中。 

en-us	Tests cost between £225 and £375 and can be ordered online. 
zh-cn	检测费用在225英镑到375英镑之间，可以在线订购。

en-us	Michelle Tempest, analyst at healthcare consultancy Candesic, said: “There are clearly tests available if you have the money.” 
zh-cn	医疗咨询公司Candesic的分析师米歇尔•坦皮斯特(Michelle Tempest)表示：“如果你有钱，显然可以买到检测装置。”

en-us	Providers include the Private Harley Street Clinic, CityDoc, and Randox Health. 
zh-cn	供应商包括Private Harley Street Clinic、CityDoc和Randox Health。 

en-us	Leander de Laporte, founder of Medbelle, a London-based start-up that usually provides cosmetic surgery, said his business had started offering World Health Organization approved home testing kits at cost price on Monday. 
zh-cn	总部位于伦敦、通常提供整容手术的初创企业Medbelle的创始人利安德•德拉波特(Leander de Laporte)表示，他的公司从周一开始以成本价提供经世界卫生组织(WHO)批准的家庭检测工具。 

en-us	“We use the same tests as the NHS, which check whether you have the virus,” Mr de Laporte said. 
zh-cn	德拉波特表示：“我们使用与NHS相同的检测装置，检查你是否携带病毒。

en-us	“We have no idea why the government is finding it so difficult; we assume it is down to the shortage of laboratory capacity or the slow process involved in setting up physical test stations.” 
zh-cn	我们不知道政府为什么会感到如此困难；我们认为这是由于实验室能力不足或建立实体测试站的进度缓慢造成的。” 

en-us	Can mass testing end the UK lockdown? 
zh-cn	大规模检测能结束英国的封锁吗？ 

en-us	Jeremy Hunt says it is “vital” that the government adopts mass community testing as an exit strategy from the current lockdown, so that any new cases after restrictions are lifted can be quickly isolated, with contacts put into quarantine. 
zh-cn	杰里米•亨特表示，政府采取大规模社区检测作为当前封锁的一种退出策略是“至关重要的”，这样在限制解除后，任何新的病例都可以被迅速隔离，接触者也会被隔离。 

en-us	But Britain will need to escalate testing from its current level of under 10,000 people a day to achieve that kind of scale and without mass testing, the only other exit strategies are a vaccine — still not in sight — or the prospect or repeated lockdowns if the disease resurfaces. 
zh-cn	但是英国目前每天只能检测不到1万人，跟那种规模还有距离。在没有大规模检测的情况下，唯一的另一项退出策略就是疫苗——仍然遥遥无期——或者是每当疾病再次出现时就重新实行封锁。 

en-us	Boris Johnson eventually wants to carry out 250,000 tests a day but Downing Street says this would be comprised of a mixture of the PCR tests and antibody tests, which establish if someone has previously been infected. 
zh-cn	鲍里斯•约翰逊(Boris Johnson)希望最终实现每天能检测25万份样本，但唐宁街表示，这个数字将同时包括聚合酶链式反应检测和抗体检测，后者可确定某人以前是否被感染过。

en-us	Millions of such tests are on order, but have so far not been approved for use. 
zh-cn	此类检测的订单已经有成百上千万张，但是到目前为止还没有被批准使用。 