UK reaches 200,000 testing capacity target

Bangla sanglap desk: The government says there is capacity to do 200,000 tests a day in the UK now, something it had promised it would achieve by the end of the month.

Some 205,634 tests were available on Saturday, the government said.

At the start of the coronavirus outbreak the UK’s limited testing capacity was soon overwhelmed by the number of new infections. Lockdown had to quickly be imposed to stop the virus spreading and overwhelming the NHS with coronavirus patients.

Testing capacity has been ramped up significantly in recent weeks to reach the 200,000 figure.

The latest daily figures show 115,725 tests were carried out or kits sent out. The bulk were community swab tests for people concerned about symptoms and wanting to know if they have the virus.

Although rates of the infection have decreased substantially with lockdown, the virus has not disappeared from society. People can still catch it and experts believe 8,000 a day in England currently are. As lockdown eases a new system called test and trace is being used to help keep the virus under control – identifying possible outbreaks.