Twitter has reacted with an outburst of mockery at the government’s announcement that it has hit its testing target.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock hailed the “incredible achievement” of hitting 100,000 Covid-19 tests per day at yesterday’s media briefing.
But according to new revelations the number included unanlysed tests that had simply been sent out, with just 73,191 actually completed.
According to one government source, the ramping up of tests amounts to little more than “just a massive one-day mission on the part of Amazon and the Royal Mail”.
Prof John Newton, National Coordinator of the UK Coronavirus Testing Programme, said “here’s been no change to the way tests are counted”, but that didn’t stop a widespread Twitter reaction breaking out.
We’ve picked out some of the best:
happy to announce I have reached my target of having sex with 100,000 women by the end of April*
— Ken Cheng (@kenchengcomedy) May 1, 2020
*this figure includes times I've sent out requests for sex and received no response
Very pleased to announce that I have exceeded my target of writing 100,000 books, if you include books I haven't yet written.
— Adam Kay (@amateuradam) May 1, 2020
NEWS! Salesman claims to hit his sales target after putting numerous proposals in the post
— NewsThump (@newsthump) May 2, 2020
Happy to announce I will soon set off on my usual Saturday 100,000 mile walk, even though it is actually only 10k. #CovidTesting
— A Very British Politics Teacher (@Mike__Towers) May 2, 2020
Related: The World’s Biggest Liar
