The Government is injecting half a billion pounds into trials of rapid coronavirus tests in a bid to boost its lagging turnaround times for results.
Pilots in Salford and Southampton of devices that scour saliva for signs of the virus will benefit from the funding package.
And a Hampshire trial of a more conventional swab test that can produce a diagnosis in 30 minutes will also receive a cash boost from the Department of Health.
Ministers are hoping to speed up the approval of the quick diagnostic tools to help reduce the length of time potential patients wait to hear back about results.
Currently just six in 10 people hear back about their Covid-19 test in 24 hours, while a quarter of all swabs take more than three days to process.
Those who take a test at home wait on average 71 hours to hear back about whether they have the virus.
Government scientists have repeatedly warned all tests must be returned within a day to properly keep a lid on future outbreaks.
Patients who don’t hear by then may get complacent or impatient and venture outside and mingle with others, potentially spreading the disease if they are infected.
Matt Hancock has announced a £500million injection of cash into trials of rapid coronavirus tests to boost its lagging turnaround times for results
The Covid-19 LAMP assay test, developed by UK-based manufacturer Optigene, can turn around results within 20 minutes. It is being trialled in Hampshire hospitals
The other test, called the LamPORE, involves taking a sample of saliva, unlike existing methods which require invasive and difficult nose and throat swabs. The testing machine comes in two sizes and is being trialled in Salford and Southampton
In total, the Government is spending £500million on new testing technology and increasing its current swab testing capacity.
The Salford trial will invite people in the community to come for weekly tests using a new saliva Covid-19 test that produces results in under an hour and a half.
Health bosses said the study will both assess how well the devices work and explore the benefits of regular testing of even asymptomatic people. Those who test positive will need to self-isolate in line with national guidelines.
The pilot will begin with a select number of participants and up to 250 tests a day, to be scaled to the whole area.
Initially, the pilot will focus on specific high footfall locations in the city, which includes retail, public services, transport and faith spaces.
Phase two of the no-swab saliva test pilot in Southampton will also start this week.
The second phase of the pilot will trial the weekly testing model in educational settings, with participation from staff and students at the University of Southampton and four Southampton schools.
Over 2,100 pupils and staff across four schools will be invited to have a test as part of the pilot, which is led by a partnership of the University of Southampton, Southampton City Council and the NHS.
Ministers are understood to have made an order for 450,000 of the saliva tests made by Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd.
The Lampore test involves taking a sample of saliva, unlike existing methods which require invasive and difficult nose and throat swabs.
Meanwhile, the trial of a rapid on-the-spot Covid test currently being piloted on thousands of patients in Hampshire is being expanded.
The Covid-19 LAMP assay test, developed by UK-based manufacturer Optigene, can turn around results within 20 minutes.
The trial of the rapid swab test began in Hampshire in May after it proved effective in clinical settings.
The swab test is being used in a number of A&E departments, GP testing hubs and care homes in the county but it is being expanded to more settings, the Government said.
Current PCR tests take 48-72 hours to produce a result because they need to be sent to a laboratory and processed at different temperatures.
But the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (Lamp) swab can be processed on site.
Health and Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘Testing is a vital line of defence in combatting this pandemic.
‘Over the past six months we have built almost from scratch one of the biggest testing systems in the world.
‘We need to use every new innovation at our disposal to expand the use of testing, and build the mass testing capability that can help suppress the virus and enable more of the things that make life worth living.
‘We are backing innovative new tests that are fast, accurate and easier to use will maximise the impact and scale of testing, helping us to get back to a more normal way of life.
‘I am hugely grateful for the work being done on this national effort to strengthen our ability to tackle this virus. While we work on a vaccine we must innovate our way out of this crisis.’
The cash injection comes as figures show the NHS contact tracing test turnaround times have been falling.
Just one fifth of tests from all test sites were received within 24 hours of a test being taken.
The number of people who got their result returned in 24 hours after visiting a regional testing site — mostly drive-throughs — was the worst yet.
Almost two-thirds (63.5 per cent) were still waiting for their result after 24 hours, up from 42.2 per cent the week before and 8 per cent in the week ending July 1.
But at last, the 24-hour target was improved for satellite test centres — places like hospitals and care homes that urgently need results — and home kits after weeks of dismal figures.
But still only 5.9 and 6.4 per cent of people in those testing categories got their result back in 24 hours.
The PM had pledged that, by the end of June, the results of 100 per cent of all in-person tests would be back within 24 hours.
Experts say getting test results fast and carrying out contact tracing immediately is vital to stopping the spread of coronavirus because there is only a short window to alert people that they are at risk of infecting others without yet knowing they’re ill.
But those who take a home test kit now have to wait 71 hours on average to find out if they have Covid-19.
The average amount of time it takes for test results to come back from all routes has increased, apart from those done at satellite test centres.