Testing capacity hits target of 200,000

Senior Tories say figures only relate to capacity and Government should focus on realising actual benefits

Boris Johnson’s target to boost testing capacity to 200,000 has been met a day early, the Government said, but senior Tories said there was “no point” as it does not translate into actual tests. The Department of Health said capacity reached 205,634 on Saturday and would support the roll-out of the NHS Test and Trace system. The number of tests carried out on Saturday was 115,725. Officials said the 200,000 figure includes 40,000 antibody tests a day for NHS and social care workers.

BORIS JOHNSON’S target to boost testing capacity to 200,000 has been met a day early, the Government said, but senior Tories warned there was “no point” to it as it does not translate into actual tests.

The Department of Health said capacity reached 205,634 on Saturday and would support the roll-out of the NHS Test and Trace system. The number of tests actually carried out on that day was 115,725.

Officials said the 200,000 figure includes the ability to do 40,000 antibody tests a day for NHS and social care workers. On May 6, the Prime Minister said “the ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000” by June, with Downing Street clarifying hours later the figure referred to testing capacity rather than the number of tests completed.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said: “Reaching our 200,000 capacity target is an important milestone on our journey to control the spread of the virus, save lives and ease lockdown.”

But one former Tory minister said: “This Government is focusing too much on targets of capabilities rather than the objective they are supposed to achieve.

“There’s no point in having capability if it’s not fully leveraged. We’ve seen a constant shortfall – chasing these targets of capacity, rather than saying what benefits are being yielded, [such as] how is it impacting on care homes, hospitals and our ability to reduce the R rate.” The MP added: “Contact tracing is critical. We’ve been slow on getting the app working. We’re playing catch up with other parts of Europe and East Asia as well. This Government is very slow in getting off the mark.”

Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt, the chairman of the Commons health and social care committee, said: “Hitting the 200,000 capacity target is highly significant because it brings in the possibility of weekly testing of front-line staff, but we now need to reduce the turnaround time to 24 hours so that close contacts can be isolated quickly.”

Last week, Mr Hunt urged the Prime Minister to cut the time it takes to process test results. Speaking during his appearance at the Commons liaison committee, Mr Johnson said he had set a target of getting tests back within 24 hours, but declined to say when it would be met. He told the committee he had been “forbidden from announcing any more targets and deadlines”. Mr Hancock praised the testing capacity drive as “one of the greatest national mobilisations that we’ve seen”.

“We brought together the best minds in the civil service, NHS, PHE, universities and the scientific community, the Armed Forces and private sector companies across the globe to reach this incredible achievement. This is by no means the end of our ramping up of testing,” he said.

Last the NHS Test and Trace programme, which will track down the contacts of every person who tests positive and tell them to isolate themselves for 14 days was launched. Mr Johnson has described it as “our way out” of lockdown and “the tool that other countries have used to unlock the prison”.

The capacity of NHS and Public Health England labs has been more than doubled, the Government said yesterday, and more than 150 drivethrough and mobile testing sites have been set up to help achieve the target.

The Department of Health said the 200,000 capacity target has been achieved through three main testing streams. The first is through diagnostic tests via home testing kits, drivethrough sites, and mobile testing units dealt with by laboratories.

Antibody testing, which is meant to determine whether someone has had the virus, added another 40,000 to the capacity total. The remaining capacity came from “surveillance testing”, which aims to determine how the virus moves through the population.

Prof John Newton, the national testing coordinator, said last night: “The expansion of our testing capacity has allowed us to take important steps to control the virus, including the introduction of a world-class contact tracing service that will help us to safely ease lockdown over time.”