PM’s 24-hour test results pledge
CORONAVIRUS test results will be ready within 24 hours by the end of the month, the Prime Minister pledged yesterday.
Boris Johnson set the target during Prime Minister’s Questions but noted it would have to take into account potential delivery delays.
Responding to a question from former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, he said: “I can undertake to him [Mr Hunt] now to get all tests turned around within 24 hours by
the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that.”
Key
Experts have said a quick turnaround will be key to the success of NHS Test and Trace.
Mr Johnson said 90 per cent of all tests were being returned within 48 hours, while those from mobile testing sites were turned around within 24 hours.
He also told MPs that thousands of people have been traced under the new system, although he did not give a precise figure. Baroness Dido Harding, head of NHS Test and Trace, was also criticised by Mr Hunt for not being able to say what percentage of all tests were returned within 24 hours.
Appearing before the Health and Social Care Committee, which Mr Hunt chairs, Baroness Harding claimed the data was still being validated.
She said: “This is a service that is only six days old.
“Building trust is going to be absolutely critical so we need to make sure that any data that we share is accurate and validated.”
The grilling came after Channel 4 News reported that just 1,749 out of 4,634 contacts provided to NHS Test and Trace by people who had tested positive were contacted in the first four days of the system going live.
The Department of Health said those figures were out of date and it intends to publish weekly performance data shortly.