“What was so special about 30th of April that meant that testing was so high?” Keir Starmer asked the Prime Minister at their first Prime Minister’s Questions session today.
“On 30th April, the government claimed success in meeting its 100,000 tests a day target,” the new Labour leader used his PMQs turn to point out.
“Since then, as the PM knows, the number has fallen back. On Monday, there were just 84,000 tests, and that meant 24,000 available tests were not used.”
Boris Johnson replied: “Actually I think that the Honourable Gentleman was right last week when he paid tribute to the amazing work… in getting up from 2,000 tests a day in March to 120,000 by the end of April.”
The Prime Minister then announced a new target of 200,000 tests a day by the end of May, and for a further ramping up of testing thereafter.
“Yes, he’s right that capacity currently exceeds demand. We’re working on that. We’re running at about 100,000 a day. But the ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer asks why coronavirus testing has fallen since 30 April
Boris Johnson says “capacity currently exceeds demand, we’re working on that… the ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month”#PMQs https://t.co/HBfSPbDpCp pic.twitter.com/1W5JYwSgLV
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 6, 2020
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