Now only 28pc get test result within 24 hours

FEWER THAN one in three people who have an “in- person” Covid19 test get their result within 24 hours, data shows.

The finding came as MPs were told the programme could cost more than £ 12 billion.

Some 28.2 per cent of people who were tested for Covid- 19 in England in the week ending September 16 at a regional site, local site or mobile testing unit – a socalled “in- person” test – received their result within this frame. This is down from 33.3 per cent in the previous week and 66.5 per cent in the week ending September 2, according to official NHS Test and Trace data.

The data shows that median turnaround time for regional drive- through test sites rose from 27 hours the previous week to 30 hours in the week ending time

September 16, while mobile testing sites saw a rise from 26 to 31 hours.

The Department of Health and Social Care said NHS Test and Trace had now reached almost half a million people. Since its launch on May 28, more than 11 per cent of people in England have been tested at least once, the department said. The Government has set a target to reach 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.

Interim executive chairwoman of the National Institute for Health Protection, Baroness Dido Harding, inset, said yesterday: “We are supporting those testing positive and their contacts to stay at home to stop transmission.

“The Covid- 19 app launched today will help us go even further, alerting users if they have been in close contact with someone with the virus, even if they don’t know each other.”