With Britain’s hospital death toll from Covid-19 rising by 563 in a single day on Wednesday, Boris Johnson is facing mounting criticism over the government’s failure to put in a place an adequate testing regime to manage the crisis.
Testing was used aggressively in countries like South Korea and Singapore to stem the spread of coronavirus, and is also vital in establishing whether health workers have been infected and are able to work.
But, according to the latest daily data, only 7,511 people were tested in England. In contrast, Germany is carrying out some 50,000 tests a day. Downing Street admitted on Wednesday that only 2,000 out of an estimated 1.2m NHS staff had so far been tested.