Covid-19 testing increasing to 25,000 per day, PM says

Doctors, nurses and other medical staff working in hospitals have been vocal in their requests for testing, so they can know whether or not they are infected, rather than having to stand down and isolate for seven or 14 days at the first sign of symptoms.

An online petition, which the Guardian said was started by a junior doctor, has amassed 700,000 signatures.

“We are prioritising NHS staff for the obvious reason that we want them to be able to look after everybody else with confidence that they are not transmitting the disease,” Boris Johnson told the House of Commons during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

“This country is far ahead of many other comparable countries in testing large numbers of people.”

Johnson initially repeated a promise last week that the NHS was upping its testing capacity to 10,000 per day from a previous 5,000, but in response to a question from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, he said the capacity was “moving up to 25,000 a day”.

The government’s move to the ‘delay’ phase of its pandemic response, which happened last Thursday, was criticised for primarily reserving testing for those unwell enough to be admitted to hospital.

That was in stark contrast to the official World Health Organization guidelines, which has advised that countries should test every person suspected of being infected, as well as their contacts.

The WHO has claimed that such an approach was behind China and South Korea managing to curb the spread of Covid-19 in their respective countries.