Coronavirus testing reaches 81,000 on day government promised 100,000
Boris Johnson has given an update on the figures on his return to the daily press briefing.
More than 81,000 people were tested for coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest daily amount since the start of the crisis.
That is a huge leap since the start of the week, when only 43,000 people were tested, despite a capacity for 73,000.
Boris Johnson confirmed the figures at today’s daily press briefing – his first one since falling ill with Covid-19 last month.
‘901,905 tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the UK, including 81,611 tests yesterday’ he said.
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The target for the end of the month was 100,000. Wednesday’s figure means the government is likely to meet or will be very close to meeting that goal, though it could be a few days before today’s testing figures are known due to a time lag in ‘verifying numbers’.
Critics have been sceptical about the government’s promise to carry out 100,000 tests per day by April 30th.
Though capacity had risen steadily in the last couple of weeks, the number of people taking up the offer to get tested has rarely been higher than 50,000.
In a move to close the gap between capacity and tests being carried out, the government massively expanded the eligibility criteria.
As of yesterday, all care home residents and staff, regardless of whether they have symptoms, can get tested for Covid-19. Tests have also been made available for people over 65 and those who must leave home to work, as well as those they live with.
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The tests are for people who want to find out if they currently have the virus. Previously, they were only available for hospital patients, NHS and care staff, emergency services, essential workers and their families.
Mr Johnson, whose fiancee gave birth yesterday, said he did not want to ‘minimise’ the problems the UK had faced in terms of testing and PPE shortages over the last month, but insisted huge progress was being made
He said: ‘What I can tell you is that everyone responsible for tackling these problems – whether in government or the NHS, or Public Health England, local authorities – we are throwing everything at it, heart and soul, night and day to get it right, and we will get it right and we are making huge progress’.
He confirmed for the first time that the UK was ‘past the peak’ and on the downward slope.
He also promised to lay out the government’s exit strategy from lockdown by next week.
He said: ‘I will be setting out a comprehensive plan next week to explain how we can get our economy moving, one; how we can get our children back to school, back into childcare, second, and third, how we can travel to work and how we can make life in the workplace safer.
‘In short how we can continue to suppress the disease and at the same time re-start the economy.’
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