A Nobel Prize-winning biologist has branded the Government’s 100,000 coronavirus tests per day target a ‘PR stunt’ as it emerged that it was ‘likely’ to be hit on time.
Sir Paul Nurse, chief executive of biomedical research centre the Francis Crick Institute, also tore into the strategy on Question Time last night and said it ‘makes absolutely no sense’.
Sir Paul said lives had been put at risk because NHS frontline workers were treating patients without being tested as allies of Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed he is ‘quite confident’ he can meet his 100,000 daily tests target.
Sir Paul said: ‘The 100,000 target is just a figure with a lot of noughts in it. It was a bit of a PR stunt, which has gone a bit wrong. Why 100,000? Where was the strategy? It just sounded good.
‘The reality is… If we had had local testing connected to hospitals, we could have made hospitals a safe place. But what we had was the potential for care workers on the words, working with sick patients, who were carrying the disease and weren’t being tested.
‘They didn’t make the decision we want to test everybody who is a frontline worker and wouldn’t test anybody who had no symptoms. We know you can be infected but have no symptoms. This makes absolutely no sense. Testing was absolutely critical. It hasn’t been handled properly’.
Figures published last night showed 81,611 tests were conducted on Wednesday, a major jump from 52,429 on Tuesday and 43,453 on Monday.
The significant jump gave renewed hope that Mr Hancock could possibly scrape past his self-imposed target.
But earlier yesterday Justice Secretary Robert Buckland had sounded less optimistic, admitting it was ‘probable’ that the target would be missed.
He defended Mr Hancock’s ambitious target and insisted the figure would be hit in the coming days.
Appearing on Question Time, Sir Paul said lives had been put at risk because NHS frontline workers were treating patients without being tested
‘Even if we don’t hit it, and it’s probable that we won’t, we will in the next few days hit that target,’ Mr Buckland told Sky News.
‘I think it was right to set an ambitious target.
‘And you know, sometimes even if you don’t hit the target on the due date the direction of travel is the most im-portant thing.
‘I believe we’re going to get there and then move beyond it, because we need more.’
The number of tests completed was massively boosted by the expansion of eligibility to all key workers with coro-navirus symptoms last week and then again to all over-65s this Tuesday.
Previously only NHS and care staff and those sick in hospital had been eligible for tests.
The Department of Health carried out a major publicity drive on social media this week in a bid to get people to take up the offer of tests, which are available either delivered to homes or at drive-in centres.
Mr Hancock is said to have told his team this week that they had achieved their aims – even if they miss the target.
In a speech to civil servants this week, reported by Buzzfeed News, he said: ‘Whatever happens tomorrow, we’ve done what we needed to do – we’ve ramped up our testing capacity more than anyone believed we could, and given the UK the testing capacity it needs to beat this virus.’
Experts believe the huge expansion in testing is key to getting the country ready for a ‘contact tracing’ programme that will be key to avoiding a second wave of the virus when ministers eventually decide to lift lockdown measures.
Mr Hancock has asked that contact tracing is ready by the middle of May.
Officials are hiring 18,000 call centre staff to run the programme – which will trace every person exposed to the vi-rus over the coming weeks.
But testing is essential to such a programme – because every person with symptoms will have to test positive for the virus to trigger a labour-intensive contract tracing effort.
And anyone who is found to have been exposed to the initial patient will then also be tested, which will involve even more tests.
Mr Hancock pledged at the beginning of April to test 100,000 people by the end of the month.
When he made the pledge Britain was only testing 10,000 people a day.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said yesterday: ‘You can chart the progress that we’ve made towards hit-ting that target and that we are working hard today to ensure that people who need tests get them.’
But NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and ambulance trusts in England, described the target as a ‘red her-ring’ which has distracted attention from failings in the long-term Covid-19 strategy.
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said as many as 120,000 tests would be needed daily for NHS workers once the UK comes out of lockdown, to stave off a second wave of the virus.
He said staff and patients would need to be tested regularly to control the spread of the virus once lockdown measures are eased.
With 800,000 people working for the NHS, Mr Hopson said there would need to be between 110,00 and 120,000 tests a day for them to be tested once a week.
He pointed to mass testing capabilities in Germany and South Korea, saying: ‘If you look at the international expe-rience, having the right testing regime is absolutely crucial in conquering this virus.
‘We are in a new phase, we are about to try and exit lockdown. If we are going to control the spread of the virus it’s really important we test all staff and patients regularly in healthcare settings.
‘What we are missing is we haven’t got the strategy in terms of what the next phase looks like.’