Question Author
Here's the full para
Minister acknowledges government may miss Covid-19 testing target
A cabinet minister has acknowledged that the government may not meet its target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month.
After intense criticism, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, pledged the country would be conducting the tests by the end of April but, with only 52,429 carried out in the 24 hours to yesterday, the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, has now conceded it might not happen. He told BBC Breakfast:
Even if it [the target] isn’t met, we’re well on our way to ramping this up and 100,000 is an important milestone, but frankly we need more.”
He added: “Yes, 52,000 isn’t 100,000, I know that ... but we are straining every sinew to get there... If he [Hancock] hadn’t set a target he would have been criticised for being unambitious. I think now is the time in respect of this to be bold ... being brave, I think, is something we should acknowledge even if the target isn’t met today.”
Just 52,429 tests were carried out in the UK in the 24 hours to yesterday, on 33,455 people.