Coronavirus tests: UK reaches 10,000 per day target
The UK has reached its target of administering 10,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of this week, according to Michael Gove.
The chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster said the weekly target was reached yesterday and it’s “NHS and social care frontline workers who are first in line for those new tests”.
However, Gove would not confirm a timetable to test every single NHS worker.
He told Sky News: “I hope that we will be able to test as many frontliner workers at the earliest possible stage.”
The Prime Minister said last week that the government aimed to eventually reach 25,000 tests a day to follow the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) call for countries to “test, test, test” so they can track the spread of Covid-19.
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However, Britain’s rate of coronavirus testing pales in comparison to other western countries.
The US is testing 65,000 people a day, while Germany is testing 71,000.
Australia, with a little over a third of Britain’s population, has tested almost twice the amount of people than the UK.
When asked by the BBC why the UK was behind other western countries like Germany, Gove said: “If one looks at the league table, the UK is rising up that.
“The most important thing is not to look backwards, but look forwards and do everything we can to increase the number of tests.
“Once this dreadful epidemic is over, there will be an opportunity for all of us to look back and learn appropriate lessons to make sure our health system, our public health system, is as resilient as possible.”