One of the UK's biggest issues with trying to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic are asymptomatic carriers of the virus and, more importantly, how to detect them. 

These are people who have been infected with the virus but have no symptoms and often don't even know they have it. A study in the UK last year found that as many as 86 percent of people who get the virus are asymptomatic. 

The UK government is pushing ahead with widespread quick result lateral flow tests, setting up 317 testing sites across England. These centers are available to people showing no symptoms but who regularly work outside their home, especially in care homes, hospitals, construction, retail and transport – sectors that haven't shut down with the rest of the country.

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However there's an ongoing debate over the tests' accuracy. The UK government had hoped to introduce them in schools, but has since abandoned that idea, while still continuing to roll out community-wide testing.

Tom Wingfield, from Liverpool's School of Tropical Medicine, explains that mass testing in Liverpool last November, and data from other regional test centres, had shown lateral flow tests missing "significant numbers of people who do have COVID-19 but don't have symptoms."

The data from Liverpool, Wingfield says, suggest that overall 60 percent of asymptomatic cases were missed.

Another group of scientists claims the data from Liverpool were misinterpreted and have issued a statement supporting the use of lateral flow tests, signatories include Susan Hopkins, interim chief medical adviser for Public Health England. The statement notes that rapid test devices had identified 27,000 infected people in the UK.

Wingfield says the question is if your lateral flow test is negative and you don't have any symptoms, should that be used as reassurance that you are actually negative?

"What we want to avoid is engaging in risky behavior like visiting a vulnerable relative after taking the test, because there's a possibility they could in fact have coronavirus," Wingfield says.

The quick tests also have a different sensitivity over time depending on when a person was infected. For example, a test is most likely to pick up a positive case on the fourth or fifth day of infection.

While the jury is still out on lateral flow tests, the UK government is going ahead with rapid testing being extended to businesses, including Royal Mail, and public sector organizations. 

The government's decision has been boosted by Oxford University researchers who found quick tests will catch between 77 and 90 percent of COVID-19 cases.

The hope is that these types of tests will catch enough positive cases to reduce the infection rate in the community and eventually give people the confidence to venture back to work, restaurants and shopping – albeit when the lockdown ends.