The Health Secretary’s aim of getting the UK carrying out 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month was not recommended by the Government’s panel of expert advisers.

Matt Hancock set the target at the start of April said the country was ‘on track yesterday’ despite only having capacity for 50,000 tests. Britain actually tested fewer than 29,000 people in the past day.

Speaking to MPs today, England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) had not backed the 100,000 figure, which the Health Secretary was previously accused of setting without any evidence.

Answering questions from the Science and Technology Select Committee, he said: ‘SAGE did not give that specific target. SAGE has consistently said and indeed I have consistently said that one of the things we needed to do is have a greater capacity to test across the whole of the UK.

‘That I have to say now is happening. So the aim to increase it would absolutely be joined not just by SAGE but to be clear by all public health bodies and ministers.

‘I think that the main questions on that one were operational – how fast could this increase happen.

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‘But the actual number was not a specific number recommended by SAGE specifically but the general trend of it, absolutely.’

He said the panel of expert advisers is yet to determine what the ‘optimum maximum’ amount of testing would be, but he said everyone is on the same page about more tests for critical workers and in hospitals and care homes.

Professor Whitty added: ‘What we are trying to do is get that basic number and then also build on top of that what are the other things that we could use it for under a number of different ways of running the next stage of the epidemic which is going to be a long one and therefore giving advice to all four nations but the UK as a whole about what they think broadly the numbers might end up looking like if we could get to an optimal number.

‘But we have not yet got to the point where we have finally got a number on that.’

At yesterday’s Downing Street press conference the Health Secretary said essential workers be able to apply for free coronavirus tests for themselves and members of their households.

But the service on the Gov.uk website had to be closed just minutes after opening this morning as applicants quickly took up the daily allocation of home testing kits.

Earlier, the PM’s spokesman said: ‘Within two minutes of the portal opening this morning, 5,000 testing kits had been ordered. And that’s the available capacity for today.’

He said up to 18,000 home testing kits per day will be available by the end of next week.

It came as the Department of Health announced a total of 19,506 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 768 from 18,738 the day before.

Number 10 said the Government is trusting that those applying for tests are key workers, with no eligibility checks in place for online bookings.

The official spokesman said: ‘As with many other aspects of the coronavirus response, we would expect the public to respond in good faith. That is what they have done with other aspects of the scheme, I think we’d expect it to be the same here.’

Asked whether the Government was confident people would be able to test themselves accurately with a kit sent to their homes, the spokesman added: ‘There are videos available to show people how to do this and people will be given clear instructions.’

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