The cabinet minister, Robert Buckland, admits that the UK government is likely to miss its target of carrying out 100,000 coronavirus tests by the end of April.
After weeks of ministers insisting the deadline would be met, Robert Buckland, said it was “probable that we won’t” reach it on Thursday but said it was likely to be hit in the next few days.
He told Sky News, “even if we don’t hit it, we will in the next few days hit that target. We are up to 52,000 being tested, capacity is rising and I think it was right to set an ambitious target. Sometimes if you don’t hit a target on the due date, the direction of travel is the most important thing. And I believe we are going to get there and move beyond it because we need more.”
The target was set by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, on 2 April as the government came under pressure over low testing levels. At that point, there was capacity for 12,799 daily tests in England, with just over 10,650 tests carried out.
Full story in The Guardian, 30 April 2020