The United Kingdom is now paying the price for not carrying out more coronavirus tests, an expert has told Euronews. The country’s current capacity stands at 12,700 tests a day, compared with Germany on 500,000 a week. On Thursday, health minister Matt Hancock announced a plan to ramp up testing so it was at 100,000 day by the end of the month.
But Dr Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School and expert in infectious diseases, told Euronews the country should have been at this level eight weeks ago. “I cannot find any other explanation apart from there was an incorrect decision made, somewhere, that we would get away with not testing extensively and unfortunately, we are now paying the price for that,” said Dr Pankhania. Latest figures show a further 684 people have died from COVID-19 in the UK, bringing the total death toll to 3,605.
Dr Pankhania is among those calling on the UK government to heed the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO) by increasing testing. On March 25, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK was raising the number of COVID-19 tests “from 5,000, to 10,000 tests per day, to 25,000 and so on. Hopefully, very soon, up to 250,000 a day”.
A fundamental part of the new five-point plan is to involve companies, private organisations and universities in the drive for testing, assisting Public Health England with the production. Euronews reached out to the Department of Health and Social Care for a figure of the number of test kits currently approved for use, but did not receive a response by the time of publishing.
Source: Euro News
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