Is Hancock moving the goalposts again over 100,000 target?

MATT Hancock may not be able to confirm whether he has met his 100,000 a day testing target by Thursday’s deadline.

Amid fears that the Government is shifting the goalposts over the figure, officials said they might not know the number until next week.

The Health Secretary announced last night that 37,024 tests were carried out on Sunday – a huge increase on the previous day but still way off the target.

He also claimed Britain was carrying out more tests a day than South Korea and ‘approaching the levels’ of Germany.

But yesterday the Prime Minister’s spokesman said a ‘time lag’ in collating data from home testing kits meant it could be several days before ministers could say whether the target was met.

He added: ‘It’s going to take a little while longer for that to be clear.’

The spokesman said it would be ‘difficult’ to give a definitive answer even by Friday and suggested it could be next week before the position is clear. ‘For example, home testing kits can take up to 72 hours to get the results for and therefore show up in the numbers,’ he added.

The delay will raise concerns that the figures could be fudged to make the result appear more favourable to the Government.

Home testing kits and drive-through swab tests were made available last Friday to up to 10million key workers including NHS staff, police and teachers.

But the Government booking website ran out of slots within minutes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, suggesting officials had not expected the huge demand. Yesterday, all 10,000 home testing kits available were ordered within an hour and around 18,000 of the 22,000 testing slots at drive-through sites had gone by 11.30am.

Mr Hancock told the Downing Street press briefing 719,910 tests for coronavirus had been carried out so far, including 37,024 on Sunday, which was up from 29,058 on Saturday.

South Korea carried out around 20,000 tests a day at the height of its outbreak while Germany has been performing about 116,000 a day.

Mr Hancock said meeting the 100,000 a day target would enable the Government to start its ‘test, track and trace’ strategy.