CORONAVIRUS testing has topped 16,000 a day across the UK, Downing Street announced, as it said the country was now “at a critical point” in the outbreak. The peak could hit over Easter weekend, it is thought.
More than 15,000 Covid-19 tests were said to have been carried out in NHS hospitals, Public Health England labs and devolved authorities’ sites on 12,334 individuals as of 8pm on Sunday. Some people have to have more than one test.
In addition, more than 1,000 NHS workers and their families were separately tested on Sunday at the 10 drive-through sites, No 10 explained.
Matt Hancock, the UK Health Secretary, said last week that the UK Government’s aim was to have 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.
Downing St stated that some 6,500 NHS staff and their families had been tested since the programme began a few days ago.
When it was suggested this seemed a small number – there are 500,000 frontline NHS staff - Boris Johnson’s spokesman replied: “You can see we are making significant progress. We now have 10 sites to carry out this drive-through testing across the UK.”
On the hoped-for anti-body tests, which should show if someone has already had the Covid-19 infection, No 10 admitted none of the nine tests that have been carried out had proved successful.
"No test so far has proved to be good enough to use," declared the Prime Minister’s spokesman.
"We continue to work with the testing companies; we're in a constant dialogue with them and we give feedback to them when their products fail to meet the required standards.”
He pointed out: “If the tests don't work, then the orders that we placed will be cancelled and wherever possible we will recover the costs."
On ventilators, No 10 stressed that UK ministers were "confident" there would be enough machines to meet peak demand with the UK now having 10,000 and a further 1,000 on order.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman also noted how 300 ventilators secured from Chinese manufacturers had arrived over the weekend.
"We are confident with the additional steps being taken to increase the numbers available as well as people continuing to stay at home to reduce the spread of the virus there will be enough ventilators to meet the demand.”
Earlier, asked about some people continuing to flout the rules on self-isolation and social distancing during the fine spring weather, the spokesman insisted: “We are at a critical point. It’s hugely important that people continue to follow the guidelines and stay at home. We fully understand the sacrifices we are asking people to make but they are hugely important and ultimately they will save lives.”
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