Coronavirus: Number of daily tests hovering 10,000 below government's aim, and 85,000 below target for end of month

Ministers spoke of desire to have 25,000 tests by middle of this month

The number of daily coronavirus tests is hovering around 10,000 short of where ministers hope to be this week.

Figures released on Wednesday show there were almost 16,000 tests carried out on Tuesday, 14 April, compared to below 15,000 the previous two days.

But at the start of April Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said ministers wanted to carry out 25,000 tests by the middle of this month.

The daily testing rates also highlight how far the government is from its official daily target of 100,000 tests by the end of April, two weeks away.

The figures have now hovered between 14,000 and nearly 16,000 for three days in a row, down from highs of 18,000 and 19,000 last week.

The commitment to 100,000 daily tests was made by Health Secretary Matt Hancock after the government came under increasing pressure over the low number of tests carried out in the UK compared to other countries, especially Germany.

Following a public outcry, ministers also announced spare capacity in the system would be used to test NHS workers, amid fears many were languishing at home unable to come to work because they did not know if they had the disease or not.

Figures released today show more than 50,000 health service workers have now received a test for coronavirus and that the number of NHS staff off sick has fallen as a result.

In England 5 per cent of doctors and 8.4 per cent of nurses are currently on sick leave, down from 5.3 per cent and 8.6 per cent on Monday.​

Downing Street insisted that the 100,000-tests-a-day target remained in place.

"We continue to make progress in terms of boosting the capacity which we have in labs, and our overall commitment remains the same, which is to achieve 100,000 tests by the end of the month," the prime minister's official spokesman said.

Some 14,982 tests were carried out in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday, Downing Street confirmed.

There was the capacity to test more than 19,000 people a day, No 10 said, and capacity was “increasing all of the time, both in terms of drive-through sites and in NHS labs”.

At the start of April Mr Jenrick said capacity at that stage had reached 12,750.

Asked when 25,000 tests a day would be performed he told Sky News: "We'd like to be at that position by mid-April."

Downing Street also said that so-called ‘surge capacity’ in the NHS was "holding up well” across the country.

Nightingale hospitals in London, Manchester and Birmingham are already open and caring for small numbers of patients.

Harrogate's hospital will officially open next week, while work is under way at sites in Bristol, Exeter and Sunderland.