Difficult to know if 100,000 daily virus test target

IT will be “difficult to know” if the UK Government has hit its coronavirus testing target, Downing Street has said.

More than 10 million essential workers and their households are now eligible for Covid-19 checks as officials race to hit their 100,000 coronavirus tests a day target by the end of the month.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that 29,058 tests had been carried out in England, Scotland and Wales in the 24 hours up to 9am on Saturday.

But he cautioned that the numbers do have the “significant time lag” often seen yesterday, not reflecting the change over the weekend or the boost from the new testing portal.

All 10,000 home testing kits available yesterday were ordered within an hour and as of 11.30am around around 18,000 of the 22,000 testing site slots had gone, the Prime Minister’s spokesman added.

Downing Street played down expectations that it will be clear whether or not the Government has reached its testing target this week.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman added: “It’s going to take a little while longer for that to be clear.”

He said it will be “difficult” to know on Friday, adding: “For example, home testing kits can take up to 72 hours to get the results for and therefore show up in the numbers.”

While home testing kits were unavailable after 9am on Monday, drivethrough tests in England and Scotland were both still available.

Downing Street’s comments come after a Government scientific adviser said up to 100,000 tests per day could be needed as part of a widespread testing and tracking strategy as the country emerges from lockdown.

Professor Peter Horby, chairman of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which is advising ministers, said the Government’s plans to move into tracking and tracing future coronavirus patients would be a “real logistical challenge”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The test and trace capabilities are really going to be critical as we come out of lockdown.

“We will have to be able to test all those people (declaring via apps that they are displaying symptoms) and it is really a matter of scale and speed.

“One issue is how many tests we need, and if we are looking at 1,000 to 5,000 new cases per day of people with symptoms, of which maybe 5%-25% may have Covid, then you are talking