• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Government misses coronavirus testing target for sixth day in a row

Environment Secretary George Eustice highlighted ‘daily fluctuations’ in availability.

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
May 9, 2020
in News
Credit;PA

Credit;PA

The Government has defended missing its key 100,000 target for coronavirus tests for the sixth day in a row, highlighting “daily fluctuations” in availability.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said 97,029 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday, up from 86,583 the day before, at the daily Downing Street briefing on Friday.

Asked why the UK had not tested at capacity for six days in a row and about reported delays of up to 10 days in getting results back, Mr Eustice said: “If you have, as we do, 50 different sites offering drive-through tests you will get regional variances.

“You will get some days of surplus tests where people haven’t come forward to take them in some areas, and you will have other areas where you don’t have quite enough capacity for that local demand.”

He also said staff and residents in care homes needing a test “should be able to get one quickly”, highlighting in addition to the drive-through sites there were around 90 mobile test centres.

Capacity

He said: “It’s possibly the case that they can’t get an immediate test on that day, but they should be able to get one quickly because we do now have the capacity and today we’ve got the figures announced which shows we’ve tested 97,000 people, and that includes since we’ve been doing the testing, tens of thousands of staff working in care homes and indeed residents as well.”

NHS England medical director Professor Stephen Powis added patients were being tested in hospital before being sent into care homes.

RelatedPosts

‘Thank you everyone’ – Man leaves church after years in sanctuary to avoid deportation

Reactions as Minister says face coverings in secondary schools won’t be compulsory

It’s your own fault you lost your job during pandemic, half of Brits reckon

The Guardian comment deserving of ‘a thousand upticks’

He said: “The NHS has been working increasingly closely with colleagues in social care to provide support, so we are testing patients before they are discharged into care homes.

“But I think it’s important also to note that it’s a relatively small number of discharges from hospitals that actually are directly into care homes, somewhere in the region of around one in 20 are going into care homes for the first time.”

Mr Eustice also said the Government’s new target to carry out 200,000 tests by the end of the month would not affect the current testing work.

HEALTH Coronavirus
(PA Graphics)

He said: “I think it is important and helpful to have targets you’re moving towards in order to expand that capacity in short order, which is what we’ve been trying to do.

“I don’t really understand at all why that would distract from those that are delivering the current test capacity and they can continue to do so – the planning for an expansion is done by an entirely different set of people.

Track and trace

“As we start to roll out things such as our track and trace approach, testing will become quite an important feature of that.”

The defence of the testing regime came after an MP said essential workers trying to book a Covid-19 test using an official website were offered slots requiring a 400-mile round trip.

Labour MP Kevan Jones described the situation in County Durham as “chaotic” after a constituent was offered a test in Perth, Scotland, meaning a round trip of about seven hours, with others saying they were asked to go to Edinburgh.

The Durham North MP said the official testing website also offered someone a test in Penrith in Cumbria, 63 miles from Durham, despite local test sites being set up with the help of the county council.

He said the official site was “shambolic” and called on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to address it urgently.

Related – Pandemic planning should be ‘free from political interference’

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Tags: headline
Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today, 26 February 2021

Image by AdobeStock

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Friday 26 February 2021

Set For Life Results Thursday 25th February 2021

East London Liquor Company Canned Cocktails

These are the best canned cocktails money can buy

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.