Coronavirus: Why isn't the UK using its full testing capacity?
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has聽a "five-pillar" plan to achieve his target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.
Thursday 23 April 2020 19:25, UK
The government has promised to increase the number of daily coronavirus tests to 100,000 by the end of April - and says it is "confident" it can deliver.
Ministers have been under pressure to increase the number of tests after being compared to countries such as Germany and South Korea, which have been largely praised for their responses to the pandemic.
The World Health Organisation has urged countries to "test, test, test" - and those nations which have used aggressive testing have seen promising results.
Testing can help researchers to better understand the spread of the virus and is needed for those who are seriously ill in hospital.
But some experts have argued the UK government's target is "arbitrary", and that it needs a change in strategy if there is going to be enough demand for more tests.
Without a clearer testing strategy, they warned, we will not be able to ease the lockdown.
Who is being tested?
Testing is currently available to NHS staff and their families, as well as other key workers showing symptoms.
Tests had previously been reserved for those who ended up in hospital with COVID-19 symptoms, but have since been expanded to include:
- Social care staff and people providing support to frontline NHS services, such as catering staff and voluntary workers
- Police, fire and rescue services
- Local authority staff, including those working with vulnerable children, adults and victims of domestic abuse, and those working with the homeless
- Defence, prisons and probation staff, and judiciary
- Frontline benefits workers
Where there is extra capacity, testing will also be expanded to other groups of workers including those delivering critical food, medical, energy, utility and transport supplies.
Anyone who is eligible - with coronavirus symptoms such as a high temperature or new continuous cough - should speak to their employer if they would like to be tested.
The diagnostic tests - known as antigen tests - to find out if someone has coronavirus are done by taking a swab of the nose or throat, which is then sent to a laboratory.
How many tests are being carried out currently?
Official figures show less than half of the current available COVID-19 testing capacity is being used.
In the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday, capacity stood at 41,398 - but only 18,206 tests were carried out over the period in England, Wales and Scotland.
This refers to the number of tests completed, as in some cases the same person was tested more than once.
The highest number of tests completed in one day so far was 19,527 on 8 April.
On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab - who is deputising for the prime minister - said he was "confident" the UK could reach its target.
He told MPs: "I've set the goal of 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month and I'm delighted to say that the expansion of capacity is ahead of plans, even though demand has, thus far, been lower than expected.
"We are therefore ramping up the availability of this testing and expanding who is eligible for testing, and making it easier to access the tests."
Even if the government reaches the daily capacity for 100,000 tests by the end of April, it does not necessarily mean 100,000 tests would be carried out.
However, asked by Sky's political editor Beth Rigby if the target is still 100,000 actual tests by the end of this month, Tory MP Andrew Bowie said: "Yes, that's what Matt Hancock set out a few weeks ago now, and he was very clear that was our target."
Why aren't more tests being carried out?
The government says the UK appears to be lagging behind because it did not already have the infrastructure in place, unlike other countries.
There has also been huge international demand for testing materials such as kits, swabs and chemical reagents.
But some experts say the issue is less about the UK's capacity to perform tests, and more about demand and logistics.
Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Science, told Sky News we currently lack a "clear testing strategy" - and without one, we will not be able to ease the lockdown.
This will need to include measures such as tracing those who have come into contact with patients and isolating those infected, he added.
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Mr Wilson said there are NHS teams at a local level across the country who are trained and able to perform tests.
But because the UK's testing is aimed only at key workers and those seriously ill in hospital, there is simply not the demand.
"I'd argue we don't need 100,000 tests at the moment," he said. "Unless they change the strategy."
Stephen Baker, a professor of molecular microbiology at the University of Cambridge, whose lab is being converted to help Addenbrooke's Hospital, says the government has been "slow to respond" with testing.
He says his team have a certain capacity, but have only received a limited number of swabs to test.
"The labs are up and running pretty well," he said. "The big question is whether the swabs are being taken to [testing centres]."
Prof Baker believes one problem is there has not been enough communication with the public about who can get tested, and how they can go about it.
"There is also a reticence to go get samples," he said, suggesting many do not want to travel to swabbing centres.
This was echoed by social care minister Helen Whately, who told Sky News it was "difficult" for some to get to these centres, as they are "not necessarily nearby and not everybody has a car".
Carers have criticised the government's roll out of COVID-19 tests after many workers were told to travel long distances to access them.
Only a quarter of those care workers eligible have managed to access drive-in test centres across England, according to data by the National Care Forum.
Both experts made clear that the more testing we do, the better - but there need to be changes made if this is going to happen.
How will the UK ramp up testing?
Health Secretary Matt Hancock previously unveiled a "five-pillar" plan to achieve the government's target.
1. Swab testing at Public Health England and NHS laboratories
This includes Public Health England's regional laboratory network, and NHS laboratories have been added to this since the beginning of March.
2. Using commercial partners, including universities and private businesses, to establish more swab testing
This includes three new labs in Milton Keynes, Alderley Park and Glasgow which aim to dramatically increase the number of tests that can take place each day, and are supported by pharmaceutical giants GSK and AstraZeneca.
However, a Sky News investigation found the Milton Keynes centre was only conducting 1,500 coronavirus tests a day more than two weeks after it was declared open - despite being touted as able to complete 25,000 tests.
Thermo Fisher is supplying the UK with testing kits, while Boots and other partners have been setting up regional test centres across the country and Amazon has been supporting plans for a home-testing service for critical key workers.
3. Introducing antibody blood tests to determine whether people have had COVID-19
An antibody test can detect whether someone has previously contracted coronavirus and now has some immunity due to the presence of antibodies in their blood.
Officials previously said the tests would allow people to return safely to work if they had already been infected.
Last month, Public Health England said an antibody test could be available to the public within days - but it was later found that millions of tests purchased by the government did not work well enough to be used.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has warned there is no evidence that people who have COVID-19 cannot be infected again, which could throw doubts on the usefulness of antibody tests in this context.
4. Surveillance to determine the rate of infection and how it is spreading across the country
Although these tests are not available to the public, a high-accuracy antibody test is being used by Public Health England at their Porton Down lab.
This will be used to work out what proportion of the population have already had the virus and help to inform decision-makers.
Some 20,000 households across England have been contacted to take part in the first wave of the study.
5. Building an "at-scale" diagnostics industry
Life science companies have been urged to turn their resources to creating and rolling out mass testing.
How likely are we to achieve the 100,000 target?
Mr Wilson says it is "highly unlikely" the UK will conduct 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.
He said it would "take a change in attitude of the public" towards testing, and more focus on taking samples locally.
Meanwhile, Prof Baker said "the capacity is there now or not far off" for the UK to hit its target, adding that testing "could ramp up".
But he called the 100,000 figure "arbitrary", and said there needed to be more emphasis on screening healthcare workers.
"There needs to be a more sustained approach to screening hospital staff," he said.