Minister fails to explain why UK coronavirus testing so far behind Germany

The government has failed again to explain why the UK is lagging behind other countries in testing to see if people have coronavirus.

The UK is currently carrying out around 10,000 tests a day compared to 70,000 in Germany.

Just 2,000 NHS staff have been tested so far out of around a quarter of a million.

Tests of frontline staff currently make up around 500 of the 10,000 daily tests meaning thousands of medics are currently isolating when they could be treating patiets.

Two weeks ago Boris Johnson said they were aiming for 250,000 a day both of testing to see if people have the virus and antibody tests – which have not yet been approved – to see if people have had covid-19.

During today’s daily press conference five out of six journalists made reference to testing but Business Minister Alok Sharma failed to explain why there is such a big discrepancy.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg accused the government of missing its testing target and that NHS staff do not have the equipment they need.

She asked: “Do you agree that the approach and the response from government has just been too slow?”

Alok Sharma replied: “Increasing testing capacity is absolutely the government’s top priority”.

“We are now at 10,000 tests a day we are rolling out additional sites and testing labs.”

Public Health England’s Medical Director Professor Yvonne Doyle, who appeared alongside Mr Sharma, denied they had missed any targets.

She said the government had already hit the 10,000 target but now they were aiming to get to 25,000 a day.

Sky’s Beth Rigby went on to ask: “Can you give us the number or proportion of frontline NHS staff if been tested to create a virus you said 2,000. Is that out of half a million frontline NHS workers and how are you intended to scale that up?

“The prime minister said nearly two weeks ago, he wanted to get to a quarter of a million tests a day that was the virus antibody test as well, is this latest data just 10,412 tests. Why is it taking so long for reality to match the rhetoric? And will you give a clear timeframe as to when you will deliver on the Prime Minister’s promise?”

Professor Doyle said that capacity was increasing at the moment so it was “a relatively small number” at the moment but would soon reach 3,000 and the aim was to get to 25,000 capacity.

She also explained that there was work on five centres where people can drive through and get the testing done for NHS staff.

Mr Sharma said: “You made particular reference to the antibody test, and what I can say on that is, of course, we are urgently evaluating that test.

“And it is an absolute priority. And of course, this is about making sure that people who have the test can find out whether they’ve had the virus and are not immune to it.

“The chief science officer has said that the accuracy of this test is incredibly important. So it’s also important that we get this right before we launched the test itself.”

Robert Peston from ITV also asked about the 1m antibody tests bought from China and said that PHE was “dragging its feet” over approving them.

Doyle said: “The important thing about these antibody tests is -it’s not a matter of dragging a feet – it’s important that the test is valid and it does what it says it does. And as the chief medical officer said, there’s something worse than no test is it wrong test or a bad test. So that is what is being tested at the moment.”

Joe Murphy from the Evening Standard also asked about frontline NHS workers.

He said: “If 2000 NHS staff have been tested so far. And 125,000 are self isolating or thereabout. By my my reckoning 1.6% only about 2,000 frontline NHS workers have been tested for coronavirus – even though experts can carry out 12,750 tests a day. The target for the improvement that you promised in the previous month for example, will that number look like in one week from today?

He added: “And Mr Sharma I think a lot of us feel that we haven’t yet been given a full and practical explanation of why Germany is able to test many times more than the UK.

“Do they have more labs, more equipment? Are they making better use of universities or the private sector? And if so, why? Are they using a different quick attack? And what are the reactions that we’re struggling to get? We’re looking to work out if there’s a capacity issue for the Germany versus the UK, or is it a political choice?”

Mr Sharma said that the government is “seeing where they can learn throughout the process.”

Speaking after the government press conference, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Jonathan Ashworth MP said: “We still don’t have the clarity we need from Ministers on how they plan to rapidly scale up testing to the levels needed.

“Many are asking why we’re still not doing 10,000 tests a day when countries like Germany have increased testing by huge volumes.

“Expert after expert have called on Ministers to re-introduce community testing and contact tracing to break the chains of transmission. We’re calling on the Prime Minister to urgently publish a clear National Testing Strategy.”

The government have blamed the delay in the lack of chemicals available for testing but experts have been divided over the availability of vital chemicals needed for testing.

The Chemical Industry Association insisted reagents “are being manufactured and delivered to the NHS”.

One of the government’s scientific advisers, Imperial College London’s Peter Openshaw, said: “As far as I know there isn’t a great shortage of supply.”

But British In-Vitro Diagnostics Association chief executive Doris-Ann Williams said: “The provision of the different tests for this new disease is challenging … there is global demand and manufacturing capacity is being increased at pace, along with the logistics to distribute it – but none of this can be achieved overnight.”

Boris Johnson’s spokesman said earlier today: “In terms of NHS frontline staff who have been tested overall, it’s now over 2,000 and staff will be getting the results fed back to them over the next few days, … We’re very clear that we want more testing to be carried out, and that we are working with NHS England, Public Health England and others to ensure that happens.”

Downing Street had issued a “clear instruction” that testing of healthcare workers should be ramped up.