Mixed messages, U-turns and ‘massaged’ figures: A timeline of the UK’s coronavirus testing system

We look at how the ‘world-beating’ programme has unfolded in the UK, the difficulties it has faced and the general sense of confusion surrounding the service

Boris Johnson has told the British public only to book a Covid-19 test if they are showing symptoms of the disease, amid confusion over testing eligibility.

It came as health secretary Matt Hancock appeared to blame the public for the mounting problems with access to Covid-19 tests, after claiming that one-quarter of those coming forward for checks were ineligible as they were asymptomatic.

Ministers are facing growing fury over the testing programme - once described as “world-beating” by the PM - following reports that people have been unable to get hold of tests or are being told to travel hundreds of miles to a testing centre.

Here, we examine how the testing system has unfolded in the UK, the difficulties it has faced and the general sense of confusion surrounding the service.

16 March: WHO says ‘test, test, test’

The message is clear. The WHO insists that the only way to get on top of the spread of Covid-19 is to roll out extensive, nationwide testing. At this stage, 3,826 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK.

25 March: ‘UK aiming for 250,000 tests a day’

In his daily Downing Street press conference, the PM says: “We are going up from 5,000 to 10,000 tests per day, to 25,000, hopefully very soon up to 250,000 per day.” No timetable is provided for when the 250,000 target will be reached.

25 March: Government backtracks after promise that antibody tests will be available ‘within days’

Prof Sharon Peacock, the director of the national infection service at Public Health England (PHE), says mass antibody testing in the UK will be possible within days. The government later backtracks, saying the tests will not be available so quickly.

2 April: No 10 sets new target of 100,000 daily tests

Testing passes 10,000 a day for the first time since the start of the crisis, with 10,215 carried out. Mr Hancock sets a new government target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.

1 May: Government accused of ‘massaging’ testing figures

The government is accused of “misleading the public” over the number of people being tested for coronavirus, amid claims that ministers “massaged” figures to make it look like targets had been met.

After Mr Hancock said that he had met his target of testing 100,000 people a day before the end of April, significant discrepancies later emerged in the figures, with the government found to be counting home tests that had been delivered to households but not yet completed. This interpretation of the data allowed Mr Hancock to boost the final total by 40,000.

28 May: Test and Trace launched

The UK’s “world-beating” Test and Trace system is launched.

3 June: ‘We need to get more people in the system’

Baroness Dido Harding, head of Test and Trace, tells MPs that not enough people are coming forward to book a test. “What we know is, not enough of us are ordering a test when we don’t feel well,” she says. “So, we need to get more people into the tracing system.”

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End of June: ‘Waste of time’

Reports slowly to begin emerge of contact tracers who have not made a single call, raising concern that public money is being spent on an ineffective system. One contact tracer, who didn’t make a single call during his month working for the service, tells The Independent that that Test and Trace was a “waste of time”.

29 June: Delays to Lighthouse Labs ‘cost lives’

An investigation by The Independent reveals NHS leaders’ belief that lives were lost because of delays to Britain’s expansion of testing and the decision to create privatised mega-labs to process swabs.

NHS leaders and health experts raise concern over the “Lighthouse Lab” system for processing coronavirus tests, which was not fully functioning until late April – weeks after Britain’s Covid-19 peak. Three national leaders in pathology warn NHS bosses in a letter seen by The Independent that the strategy caused problems that would have “inevitably cost lives” yet were “wholly avoidable”. They called for changes before a second wave of the virus hit.

21 July: ‘If you have any doubt, get a coronavirus test’

Mr Hancock tweets: “If you have symptoms of #coronavirus, or if you have any doubt, get a coronavirus test. Anybody who needs a test can get a test, & it’s the most important thing that you can do to stop the spread of this virus.” The government is clear: if you suspect you may have the virus, for whatever reason, get a test.

10 August: No 10 overhauls faltering Test and Trace

The government announces plans to overhaul Test and Trace, shifting some control from private contractors to local public health teams, while cutting the jobs of thousands of call centre workers who had complained of having no one to call. The changes are an acknowledgment by No 10 that its centralised, privatised system for tracking down patients’ contacts has fallen short.

3 September: Tracing system continues to struggle

New government figures show that 69.4 per cent close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 were reached and asked to self-isolate between 20 and 26 August. This is down from 77.1 per cent in the previous week, and is the lowest weekly percentage since Test and Trace was launched in May.

It also means that Test and Trace has missed its target of reaching 80 per cent of close contacts for the 10th week in a row.

At the same time, reports begin to emerge of people told to travel great distances across the country to get a test. Others are simply unable to access Covid-19 tests due to allocation shortages.

9 September: Hancock points the blame at the public as Johnson announces plans to test millions

After an NHS chief involved in Test and Trace apologises for the failings of the system, saying that a “critical pinch-point” in laboratory processing is causing the chaos, Mr Hancock offers an alternative, more controversial explanation.

“We have seen a rise in the number of people who are not eligible for a test coming forward and getting those tests,” he says. “If you don’t have symptoms, unless you’ve been asked specifically by a clinician or a local authority to go and get a test, you’re not eligible for a test. But we want the tests to be available for people with symptoms.”

Both things, of course, could be true.

At the same time, official guidance on gov.uk says that testing people who do not have symptoms can be of “benefit” to “detect cases before people enter a high-risk setting” and “where there is strong reason to believe there is a high level of coronavirus present in the relevant setting”.

Despite the apparent shortages, the latest government shows that the country had capacity for 369,937 tests, as of 2 September, yet 175,687 tests were carried out.

The day ends with the PM expanding on plans for Operation Moonshot, which, if successful, will see millions of people tested every day so they could "behave in a way that was exactly as in the world before Covid".

A briefing memo sent to the first ministers and Cabinet secretaries in Scotland, seen by The British Medical Journal, says that the UK-wide Moonshot programme is expected to "cost over £100bn to deliver".