SCOTLAND'S 'missed' daily tests has nearly doubled since Nicola Sturgeon said the ability to screen had been ramped up in preparation for the national 'test and protect' scheme.
The Herald revealed that there were at least 70,906 'missed' tests in the two weeks before the First Minister outlined her test, trace and isolate strategy last week - at a rate of at least 5,064 a day.
But since it was announced on Tuesday that testing capacity had increased to 15,000 a day, official figures show that the nation has been testing at an average rate of 5223-a-day.
That means while the level of daily testing has stayed static and the ability to screen has escalated, the average 'missed' tests rate has risen to 9,777-a-day.
The new data will lead to new concerns over the nation's ability to properly test for coronavirus with the new test-trace-and-isolate strategy going live on Thursday.
The First Minister said in ushering in the new philosophy that it would see testing on a scale that has never been done before in Scotland.
Before her announcement, analysis of official figures showed that in the previous 14 day period, 72,720 tests were carried out across Scotland in all settings, including hospitals, care homes or the community, including checks done at regional and drive-through centres operated by the UK Government.
But the Scottish Government had ramped the ability to deal with tests - referred to as capacity - to carry out at least double that number as calls continue to be made for better and more checks of health care workers as well as improved ability to screen the community.
Over the two weeks at least 143,626 tests were capable of being dealt with in NHS labs and the Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow. It is understood the capacity was actually even more than that.
The 15,000 tests-a-day for Covid-19 is carried out through a combination of NHS labs, universities, the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service and the UK government's Lighthouse lab in Glasgow.
Health secretary Jeane Freeman has admitted that they have had to build testing capacity "from scratch" with the first checks available in Scotland from February 10 with a capacity of 350 tests per day in just two labs.
The Scottish Tories said Ms Sturgeon’s pledge on testing would be “meaningless” unless the Government made full use of capacity, after previously failing to do so.
On April 3, the First Minister set out an aim to do 10,000-tests-a-day by the end of last month. She said the country would "proportionately" match with 10% of a pledge by UK health secretary Matt Hancock to carry out 100,000-tests-a-day by the end of last month.
On Friday there were 5472 tests carried out in all settings, over 1000 less than the most test carried out in any one day in recent weeks. That was on April 20 when 6518 tests were carried out - before Scotland's ability to screen was ramped up to the new 'test and protect' levels.
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