The Government has sought to blame misleading figures on coronavirus testing on Public Health England after it was revealed that the 10,000 figure announced at the weekend was out by almost 1,000.
Senior Cabinet minister Michael Gove announced on Sunday that 10,000 had been administered.
But today Public Health England contradicted his figures saying that just 9,114 tests were carried out in the 24 hours from Friday morning to 9am Saturday.
The actual number of individuals tested was even lower at 7,000 because some people will need to be tested multiple times for clinical reasons.
And today Number 10 explained that Mr Gove was referring to the total capacity which was 10,949, meaning that another 1,835 tests could have been carried out.
While care minister Helen Whately revealed that the shortfall was bigger over the weekend with 7,000 daily tests carried out from a capacity of 10,000.
The government has been accused of being slow to carry out widespread testing in the fight against the virus.
Number 10 said Public Health England were responsible for the figures announced by Michael Gove.
“It is a fact that ministers are reliant on information that’s given to them by Public Health England.”
Those numbers do not include the tests given to key workers which began at the weekend.
More than 900 frontline staff were tested and the results will be fed back to them over the next few days.
It comes as around one in four NHS doctors are off work sick or in isolation, the head of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has said emphasising the need for further tests to allow those who are well to get back to work.
Ms Whately told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: “We have achieved the capacity to have 10,000 tests a day.
“The actual number that were tested on the day in question was I think around 7,000 but within the next three weeks we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day.”
(Image: PA)
Speaking on Sky later, she said the testing of NHS frontline workers would be stepped up over the next few days.
“Over the weekend we started testing NHS workers. That’s going to be increased in the weeks ahead.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said that the government expects to carry out 25,000 tests a day within around two weeks’ time.
(Image: ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
He added: “We have set out the importance which we place on testing and have been increasing our capability to conduct tests. We are also at the same time working on the development of the anti-gen testing which will allow people to know if they’ve had the coronavirus at some stage in the past.
He referred to comments by the Chief Medical Officer and Public Health England about the difficulties of trying to get the equipment needed at the same time that the rest of the world is doing the same thing.
“it is very important that the test is accurate and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said.
Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Munira Wilson said: “Throughout the coronavirus crisis the Liberal Democrats have always been clear that retaining the public’s trust has to be a top priority for the government. The fact that the government have seemingly given inaccurate information regarding the number of tests carried out is not only misleading, but reckless.
“The Secretary of State for Health must come clean quickly. There needs to be an answer as to how this happened, as well as a commitment to ensure an incident such as this does not happen again.
“Stopping the spread of coronavirus is hugely dependent on the public trusting the information and advice the government provides. This sort of behaviour puts that at risk and endangers us all as a result.”
Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the RCP, told the PA news agency that about 25% of the doctor workforce is off, either with coronavirus or because a family member or housemate is ill.
“At the moment, we think it’s more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves,” he said.
“This is really impacting a lot in emergency departments and London is in a much worse position than elsewhere at the moment, but it will come to other places.
“Birmingham is also struggling.”
Prof Goddard said hospital wards across England “are going from normal wards to Covid wards very quickly”.
