PM blames testing shortage on rising public confidence

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson has said that people being unable to secure coronavirus tests are a result of public confidence in the test and trace system.

UK labs have reached capacity, meaning some people are struggling to book tests or being sent long distances to get one. Sarah-Jane Marsh, the director of testing in England, had offered her ‘heartfelt’ apologies to people who could not get a test.

In the Commons, Boris Johnson said that the inability of people to access tests was the result of increased demand. Previously, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the shortage of tests was because too many people were getting tested despite not having symptoms.

Johnson and Hancock both denied the testing system was failing, pointing out that the UK had the biggest testing system per head of population of all major European countries.

The British Medical Association has said that the shortage ‘underlines the urgent need for the government to get a grip on the testing system that is clearly not delivering’, whilst also highlighting the ‘increasingly unmanageable’ workload of public health staff.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, responded: “It beggars belief that after weeks of encouraging people to have a test if feeling unwell, ministers are seeking to blame people for simply doing what they were advised. With children returning to school and thousands returning to the office, it’s obvious extra testing capacity would be needed. The fact ministers failed to plan is yet more staggering incompetence.”