Downing Street stands by 100,000 daily coronavirus tests target
Downing Street has stood by its target of administering 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month, despite having capacity to carry out less than half of that.
With just nine days left in the month, there is testing capacity to carry out just 39,250 tests a day.
Just 19,316 tests were actually carried out in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday, showing that there is lots of testing capacity not being used.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman also said today that the government has full confidence in health secretary Matt Hancock, despite reports in the Telegraph today to the contrary.
An “insider close to Number 10” told the Telegraph that Hancock’s pledge to reach 100,000 tests would “come back and bite him” and that it was an “arbitrary target”.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman told a group of journalists today that the story “was wrong”.
“We are absolutely standing by the target,” he said.
“You can see we are increasing capacity, we need to make sure that capacity is being used and that’s what we’re working on.
“We’ve said throughout that is the govt target and we’re working hard to hit it.”
Covid-19 testing has increased since Hancock announced a five-point plan at the start of the month to increase testing levels in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO advice to to testing and track the virus.
The plan included setting up private laboratories with the help of the private sector.
There are now 27 testing centres around the UK, including drive-through facilities for NHS workers.
The Number 10 spokesman said the government was looking at increasing the amount of people eligible to use the drive-through testing facilities.
“As capacity increases we will be able to widen the number of eligible groups,” he said.