69,463 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Tuesday, massively short of the daily target of 100,000 tests
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock had ensured that Britain would be carrying out 100,000 COVID-19 tests daily for the virus by the end of April.
The government has said that this target was eventually reached on the 30th of April, with more than 122,347 tests on the 30th of April, although this total included more than 40,000 home testing kits some of which were defective and unusable.
Government Opposition have accused them of manipulating these numbers in order to reach their target. Ministers however have rejected these accusations and say that these figures a due to a considerable increase in testing capacity within just a few weeks.
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Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Matt Hancock claimed Britain was ahead of many nations in regards to testing.
He said: “We invented the test in January. In February we got the number of tests up to 2,000 (a day). In March we multiplied that by five times to 10,000. Then we set the 100,000 target.”
“The Germans started with this enormous diagnostics industry. But if you look at other countries around the world we are miles ahead on testing and we are now one of the world leaders.”
“It is true that Germany has a very high capacity – about the same as ours. So we have basically caught up with Germany that started with this massive capability.”
“We are miles ahead of South Korea now. Absolutely.”
This news follows the University of Manchester announcing that they are working to produce an at-home COVID-19 testing kit that could be used like a pregnancy test
Speaking on these latest testing figures, Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that the UK government is:
“Far from delivering on the promise of 100,000 completed tests a day, testing numbers have now fallen four days in a row.”
He continued by saying that:
“A test, trace and isolate strategy is crucial to tackling this virus.”
“Ministers need to explain why the number of tests being completed daily is falling rather than rising.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously said that he wants the UK to be testing 200,000 people for the coronavirus by the end of May, No 10 later clarified that Boris was referring to the maximum daily capacity of testing, and not the amount of tests per day.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer brought up the issue of testing at his first Prime Minister’s Questions since being elected as the leader of the opposition.
“On April 30, the government claimed success in meeting its 100,000 tests a day target. Since then, as the prime minister knows, the number has fallen back,” Sir Keir said.
“On Monday, there were just 84,000 tests and that meant 24,000 available tests were not used.”
“What does the prime minister think was so special about April 30 that meant that testing that day was so high?”
Responding to this Boris Johnson said: “Yes, he’s right that capacity currently exceeds demand, we’re working on that, we’re running at about 100,000 a day, but the ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month and then to go even higher.”
“And as he knows and the whole House will know, a fantastic testing regime is going to be absolutely critical to our long-term economic recovery.”
At Prime Minster’s Questions, Boris Johnson also announced that lockdown measures in the UK could change on Monday following an update to the nation on the current restrictions that are in place.
