The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
UK Government denies claims its test centre has ‘capacity issues’
Arow is brewing between the UK and Scottish governments over claims a “testing capacity issue” had led to a delay in the processing of Covid-19 tests.
The Scottish Government said coronavirus cases across Scotland are expected to increase today and tomorrow following a “testing capacity issue” with the UK Government lighthouse facility in Glasgow.
As a result, more than 60,000 tests from across the UK, including Scotland, were rerouted at the weekend to other testing sites in the UK and Northern Ireland, including tests from regional test centres.
However, the UK Government described the claim as “categorically untrue” and denied there was any capacity issue at the facility.
The Scottish Government said it was notified “late last week” of a “testing capacity” issue with the UK Government lighthouse facility in Glasgow.
Officials said they were “urgently” trying to establish with the UK Government what exactly was causing the delay in testing but said this was “mainly due to demand from outwith Scotland”.
In a statement released yesterday, the Scottish Government said: “It is important to note that the majority of these tests are still well within the 24 and 48 - hour timeframe for results albeit we do expect to see an increase in the level of positives on Monday and Tuesday when the results are reported.
“We continue to reroute routine testing of care home staff through NHS Scotland testing facilities to ensure promp t turnaround times.”
A UK Government spokeswoman responded: “This claim is categorically untrue – there is no capacity issue at Glasgow’s lighthouse lab facility.
“Rerouting tests to other laboratories is a routine practice to ensure timely processing.
“We are expanding testing capacity rapidly with new lighthouse laboratories as we drive towards our target capacity of 500,000 tests a day by the end of October,” added the spokeswoman.
The latest figures show that a total of 316 people across Scotland have received positive results since Saturday – 11.2% of those newly tested.
Howe ver, yesterday ’s testing data does not represent the total daily number of tests and cases due to the processing delay.
A total of 703 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 and 62 of those are receiving treatment in intensive care.
No coronavirus- linked deaths were registered in the last 24 hours but register offices tend to be closed at weekends.
There were three confirmed cases in Fife and six across Tayside in the past 24 hours.
In a tweet, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Today’s figure for positive Covid cases should be treated with some caution due to a processing delay within the UK lab system. @scotgov is liaising with the UK Government to understand and resolve this as quickly as possible. I will give an update at daily briefing tomorrow.”
Saturday’s update from the Scottish Government revealed there had been 15 further coronavirus deaths recorded.
The total number of fatalities now stands at 2,609, though separate figures from the National Records of Scotland, which record all deaths where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate, suggest the true death toll is 4,301.
The update on Saturday showed 1,167 people had tested positive for the virus, representing 17. 6 % of newly-tested individuals, up from 16.9% on Friday.