Business Secretary Alok Sharma gets muddled over coronavirus testing as he claims 115,000 people were screened yesterday – despite government not having released figures for a week
- Business Secretary Alok Sharma grilled on coronavirus testing during interviews
- He initially claimed that 115,000 people were for the disease tested yesterday
- Later admitted the government has not published figures on people for days
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Business Secretary Alok Sharma got in a tangle today as he was grilled over the government’s testing claims.
Mr Sharma was pressed in a round of interviews on figures ministers say show there is enough capacity in place to contact trace new coronavirus cases.
The government has been giving details of daily tests, but not for how many people have been tested – which is often lower as some need more than one for clinical reasons. Downing Street has blamed ‘technical’ reasons for the absence of the information over recent days.
Asked for the number of individuals tested, Mr Sharma told BBC Breakfast: ‘Forgive me, I may be wrong, but I think this was set out, I think it was around 115,000, I think was the figure set out yesterday.
‘I’m very happy to come back to you or make sure that we provide you with that information if we have it.’
Alok Sharma was pressed in a round of interviews on figures ministers say show there is enough capacity in place to contact trace new coronavirus cases.
The Government said there were 115,725 tests in the 24 hours up to 9am yesterday, but the figure is for tests rather than people tested.
Mr Sharma tried to clear up his mistake later, acknowledging on Sky News that the Government had ‘paused’ releasing figures on the number of people being tested.
He said there was a need to make sure the data was ‘right’.
‘Those figures will of course be released and any errors that have been made in the system will be put right,’ he said.
The PM’s spokesman said; ‘There is an issue with not being able to get the number of people who have been tested from one of the government’s commercial partners.
‘We are working to resolve that.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed yesterday that he had hit his 200,000-a-day coronavirus testing target.
The Health Secretary said the UK had the ‘capacity’ for 205,634 tests daily as of yesterday, describing it as ‘one of the greatest national mobilisations we have seen’.
But he faced questions as the goal does not relate to tests actually carried out – which has still not come close to the 200,000 mark.
The level was also only reached by including 40,000 antibody tests.
The Government has also been avoiding saying how many people have been tracked and traced in the first few days.
The figure for tests carried out was 115,725 yesterday, but the number of people tested has not been disclosed for days with the government blaming technical problems