Demand for UK coronavirus tests up to four-times higher than supply
Demand for coronavirus tests in the UK is up to three or four-times greater than current capacity, according to the NHS Test and Trace boss.
Baroness Dido Harding told parliament’s science committee today that the UK’s capacity is now 242,817 coronavirus tests a day, however more than a quarter of people getting tested do not have symptoms.
She said that most of the 27 per cent of people who had not shown symptoms, but still got tested anyway, had been around people with Covid symptoms.
Under government guidance only people who have a fever, continuous cough or a loss of smell and/or taste should ask for a test.
“We don’t want to push away people who are scared,” she said.
The shortfall in testing comes after a “very marked increase in the number of young children” requesting tests, Harding said.
Boris Johnson has promised that the UK will have a testing capacity of 500,000 a day by next month.
The government’s testing programme has come under fire over the past week as many have found it impossible to get a Covid-19 test when they are symptomatic.
In many cases, people have been told by the NHS Test and Trace website that the nearest testing location was hours away by car.
The Evening Standard revealed today that no testing appointments were available in any borough of London yesterday.
Tory MP Jacob-Rees Mogg made headlines today when he said that people should stop “carping” about not being able to get tests.
Harding told MPs at the science committee that only a third of people who are getting tested at walk-in centres get their results within 24 hours.
Harding “strongly refutes that the system is failing”.
“We made a conscious decision because of the large increase in demand to extend the turnaround time in order to process the number of tests in the last couple of weeks,” she said.