Coronavirus: Tory minister unable to say how many individuals tested in clash with Piers Morgan

A senior Tory minister was unable to say how many people have been tested for coronavirus as the government faces a race against time to meet an ambitious pledge for 100,000 daily tests.

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, came unstuck during an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, where he failed to answer repeated questions on the number of individuals who’ve received Covid-19 tests.

Mr Lewis also admitted it was “dreadful” that more care workers have not been tested for the virus but insisted that the government was on track to hit the 100,000-test daily target by the end of the month.

Ministers are under pressure to scale up daily testing from around 40,000 to 100,000 by May, following a pledge from the health secretary Matt Hancock.

But the number of tests carried out is far lower than capacity at around 22,000, as NHS staff appear to be struggling to get to testing sites miles from their homes.

Drive-through sites have been pictured lying almost empty, while some staff could be isolating needlessly or passing on the virus unwittingly at work.

GMB presenter Piers Morgan challenged Mr Lewis if he knew how many people had been tested out of the 22,000 tests that took place on Wednesday – as multiple tests can be carried on one person.

Mr Lewis responded: “No, the only thing I have got is the number of tests that we did, the number of tests that were available.”

Mr Morgan pressed him again: “You don’t actually know how many people you tested out of the 22,000 tests?”

The cabinet minister said: “We did 22,000 tests. How many individual, different people that was I don’t have that data in front of me.”

Mr Morgan said the government’s testing programme was a total “shambles”, saying: “Shall I tell you? 13,000.”

Mr Lewis replied: “The focus is about making sure that people who require the test, the people who need that test, get access to those tests.

“That’s what we’ve been doing. The NHS, the employers, will put people forward to have tests they believe need those tests.

“One of the things we’re looking to do is make more people able to access those tests as individuals, rather than through their employer, which again will speed up and increase the number of people who can get access to it.”

With high numbers of deaths expected in care homes, the senior Tory also admitted that more staff should be able to get access to testing.

He said:​ “I think it’s dreadful that we can’t get more people tested.

“That’s why it’s important we do upscale the ability for people to access these tests, both with more test centres, the ability to have the tests at home, and the ability to apply for them directly rather than having to apply through their employer, which has been slowing things down.”

The latest figures show the government is still less than a fifth of the way towards its 100,000 tests target, with eight days to go.

Some 18,206 tests were carried out in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday in England, Wales and Scotland, while capacity stood at 41,398.

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk