The government's ability to test people for coronavirus has been "inadequate" throughout the pandemic, a committee of MPs has said.

The Science and Technology Committee said capacity had not been increased "early or boldly enough".

It said a lack of capacity had driven initial decisions in mid-March to scale back contact tracing and largely restrict tests to hospital patients.

Committee chairman Greg Clark said ministers would need to "apply the lessons" from the "slowness" of increases to testing to other areas.

In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Conservative MP added that capacity "drove strategy, rather than strategy driving capacity".

In his letter, Mr Clark laid out several recommendations to ministers.

He accused Public Health England (PHE) of initially opting to "concentrate" tests in a limited number of its own laboratories and only expanding capacity "gradually".

He said that had led to the decision to initially abandon contact-tracing as a strategy on 12 March, and meant care home residents could not be tested when the virus was spreading at its fastest rate.

He added that evidence taken by his committee from experts in South Korea, Hong Kong and Germany had shown the need for mass testing was "identifiable from the beginning".

Testing provides Data, but, in a live environment, can't see what use it is unless folks are tested daily, what, apart from statistics would a "One Off" test prove?

Aren't they more worried about care homes? They were saying on some report that one of the causes of spread is agency workers in care homes so that's who they should be testing as a priority.

Exactly that Spitty!
People would need need to be tested at least once a week to
to have any effect?
Only COMPLETE isolation will be effective, not the partial set up
we have at the moment with thousands of air passengers coming
going every day??
I dont think the scientists can be blamed for allowing this to
happen?

Donkeyman! 👎👎