PM’s cause to regret promise

‘World-beating’ claim in doubt

AFTER RAISING eyebrows last week when he told former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt during a Liaison Committee meeting that he had been “forbidden” from announcing any more targets in relation to getting coronavirus test results back within 24 hours, Boris Johnson changed tack during Prime Minister’s Questions to do exactly that.

In response to another question from the same MP yesterday, Mr Johnson gave an undertaking all tests will be turned around within 24 hours by the end of this month. The Prime Minister chose his words carefully, saying that this target excepted difficulties with postal tests or other “insuperable problems.”

His caveat on that matter was important after he was given cause to regret his clearer promise on May 20 that the UK would have a “world-beating” test, track and trace operation to identify people who had come into contact with Covid-19 sufferers in place by June 1.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said council leaders believe the local element of the scheme is weeks away from being ready, while Baroness Dido Harding, who is heading up the NHS Test and Trace system, has reportedly admitted it will not be fully operational until the end of June.

Mr Johnson accused Mr Starmer of “casting aspersions” on those who have set up the system – but his comments merely echo what the Association of Directors of Public Health said last week when they warned the programme is “currently far from being the robust operation that is now urgently required as a safeguard to easing restrictions”.

With the country still at Level 4 alert – meaning transmission of Covid-19 is still considered to be “high or rising exponentially” – the new Test and Trace system is clearly vital to the safety of the nation. But it is equally clear the system is not yet completely effective, so we must pray caution.