No 10 blocks publication of daily Covid-19 testing figures

THE Government will no longer release figures on the total number of people being tested for coronavirus on a daily basis amid concerns millions of tests are not being recorded.

The way Covid-19 testing figures are published will be changed to reflect the fact that people are being tested on a regular basis, Downing Street said yesterday. It came as NHS boss Baroness Harding defended the decision not to test close contacts of those with the virus, arguing it might undermine the instruction to self-isolate.

When asked how many people were being tested each day, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “On that, DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) will no longer publish the number of people tested daily and will instead publish the number of daily tests processed. This is because the daily people-tested statistic only counts new people being tested.

“For example, someone who is tested in February and then tested again this month will only be counted once. Considering hospital and care home staff are now being tested on a regular basis, we don’t think this statistic would be an accurate reflection of the amount of daily testing that is taking place. Test-and-trace statistics published weekly will still include the number of people who have been tested.”

In the 24 hours up to 9am on Sunday, a total of 164,849 tests were provided and the testing capacity for the day stood at 294,258. The change came as DHSC data revealed that since testing started a total of 10.5million tests have been “made available” but only 8million of those have been “processed”.

It means that as many as a fifth of tests – more than 2million – are either not being sent back to laboratories or are being voided.

No 10 accepted that some people were opting not to carry out the process of sending their test back for examination after receiving their home coronavirus testing kit.

The spokesman added: “It will be the case that some members of the public may order a test and then for whatever reason they choose not to return that test.” The spokesman said he had not seen a “verified number on this” when the figures were put to him.

Labour accused the Government of using the policy change to hide that it failed to hit its testing target, arguing ministers could not show that 100,000 were ever being tested on a daily basis.