Minister Brandon Lewis blames 'a bit of an issue at the labs' for coronavirus testing falling by almost HALF as Labour's Keir Starmer says the lockdown should STAY until the numbers are much higher to keep people safe
A Cabinet minister blamed a massive slump in coronavirus testing in the last few days on 'a bit of an issue at the labs' today amid mounting criticism of falling numbers.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said 'a technical issue' was behind a 43 per cent fall in completed daily tests between last Thursday and yesterday.
His comments came after it was revealed last night that 69,463 took place in the 24 hours to 9am that day, raising concerns over the progress of the testing regime.
The figure is just 57 per cent of the 122,327 tests that Matt Hancock boasted had been carried out on Thursday to meet his pledge of 100,000 tests conducted per day by the end of April.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer warned this morning that the lockdown should not be lifted until 'many, many more tests' could be done.
Mr Lewis told Sky News today: 'There has been a bit of an issue at the labs, there's been a technical issue.
'That's not surprising with a completely new test and a new diagnostics system we've put in place.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said 'a technical issue' was behind a 43 per cent fall in completed daily tests between last Thursday and yesterday
His comments came after it was revealed last night that 69,463 took place in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday, raising concerns over the progress of the testing regime
The figure is just 57 per cent of the 122,327 tests that Matt Hancock boasted had been carried out on Thursday to meet his pledge of 100,000 tests conducted per day by the end of April (pictured is Lighthouse Lab Covid-19 testing facility at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow)
'But that technical issue is now dealt with so we'll see that capacity and demand levels coming up.
'But the capacity has remained over demand and above 100,000.'
Ministers have hailed increased testing as vital for allowing the lockdown to be eased from next week and kick-start the economy.
While the capacity for testing remains above 100,000 per day there is mounting pressure on the disparity between the capacity and the number actually completed.
The Prime Minister today yesterday the ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month and then to go even higher'.
Healthy Secretary Matt Hancock claimed the Government met its 100,000 a day testing target by the end of April, including 40,000 tests that had been sent out to homes but had not yet processed.
Sir Keir told BBC Good Morning Scotland he thinks lockdown should continue until test numbers have risen significantly
It has failed to maintain that level in early May, with just 84,000 tests completed on Monday and figures falling even further since.
Sir Keir told BBC Good Morning Scotland he thinks lockdown should continue until the numbers have risen significantly.
He told the programme: 'Of course we want the number of infected cases to go down, we want the death toll to go down but we've got to also plan for the future and I'm convinced that testing, tracing and isolating is going to have to be part of any strategy for the future.
'But if that's going to happen the planning needs to go in now because we need many many more tests than we've got already.'
Asked whether we should continue with lockdown measures he said: 'I think we should.
'I'm sure that that is going to be the UK Government's decision and we will support it. Lockdown needs to stay in place until we are sure the infection rate has gone down.
'I will be very surprised if the Government doesn't reimpose the lockdown when it comes up for review later on and we will support them in that. This is not about lifting the lockdown now, it's about planning for the future.'
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