Boris Johnson sets new target of 200,000 Covid-19 tests a day – but the Government are clueless how many are being used
BORIS Johnson has set a new target of 200,000 tests a day — but health bosses admit they are counting home kits sent out that may not have been used.
Up to 27,000 home-testing swabs are being posted out every day as part of the drive to get numbers up.
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Yet the Department of Health confessed it does not count how many are returned or analysed.
A spokesman told The Sun: “Home test kits are only counted in our statistics once, when they are sent out, as opposed to when they are returned or analysed.”
The revelation came after Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced he had hit his initial target of carrying out 100,000 daily tests by the end of April.
In fact the figure of 122,347 on April 30 included more than 27,000 DIY kits which had just been sent out, instead of having been successfully carried out.
People using the kits swab themselves and send the samples away to be processed in a lab. They are meant to receive the results within 48 to 72 hours.
But it is not known for sure if all those people are actually using the kits, or have even swabbed themselves correctly.
‘POLITICAL STUNT’
Opposition MPs accused ministers of staging a political stunt by setting endless targets without knowing if the home testing kits are a success.
Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “This just exposes the nonsensical, headline grabbing approach that has been adopted by the Government to doing 100,000 tests a day.
“It is quite clear now that rather than focus on tests actually being done they wanted to game the system to claim ‘success’.
“It’s a political stunt and the country deserves better.”
Lib Dem MP and the party’s health spokesman Munira Wilson said: “In order to reach its first testing target, we know the Government had to massage the metrics by changing the way they recorded them to count home tests being sent out.
“To admit that they don’t even bother to register them when they return makes a mockery of the entire testing strategy.
“It’s like saying, ‘the cheque’s in the post’.
“The Government is simply undermining the public’s confidence in them at a time when maintaining their trust is crucial.”
It emerged just 69,463 tests were carried out on Tuesday — the fourth day in a row the numbers fell below Mr Hancock’s 100,000 target.
What could be eased in this week's lockdown speech from Boris Johnson?
- Brits may be told to wear masks on public transport and at work
- People may be able to exercise more than once a day
- Brits may be permitted to go outside into open spaces like parks, not just for exercise
- The PM could confirm when schools could finally reopen
- He is likely to discuss which type of workplace can open first
- And Bris will also discuss jow we’ll keep the “R rate” – or rate of transmission – low
- A financial update on how the lockdown is affecting the economy could be on the cards
- And what the future of shopping could look like may be discussed
And the new row came as the PM made the shock announcement that he is doubling Britain’s daily testing target to 200,000 a day.
Making his first appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions for over a month, Mr Johnson told The Commons: “The ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month and then to go even higher.”
He said a “fantastic testing regime” will be critical to helping Britain’s economy bounce back from the outbreak.
Mr Hancock appeared to be taken by surprise by the new target, as he shook his head in the House of Commons Chamber when the PM announced it.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman later said it was an “operational target” to get capacity up to that number, rather than a target for the number of tests that should actually be carried out.
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He insisted the Health Secretary did know about the new milestone, adding: “It is a Government target.”
Meanwhile the Department of Health said self-swabbing is just as effective as getting a medic to carry out the test.
They said each kit comes with clear instructions to tell people how to take an effective swab.
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