FORMER Prime Minister Gordon Brown has slammed the government’s coronavirus testing programme and warned lockdown cannot be lifted until hundreds of thousands of screenings are being carried out daily.
The ex-Labour leader told Good Morning Britain he is ‘amazed’ testing hasn’t been rolled out for all NHS workers as he pulled no punches over the government’s handling of the crisis.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock previously announced a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April and Boris Johnson recently said the government aims to double that by the end of May.
But daily testing has regularly dipped below 100,000 in recent weeks and some NHS and care home staff are still complaining of difficulties in getting tested.
Mr Brown, who served as Prime Minister between 2007 and 2010, said social distancing and hand washing will not be enough to stop a second wave unless the government hits ‘hundreds of thousands’ of tests a day.
He said: “We’ve lost probably around 12,000 to 20,000 lives in care homes and not even now are most workers and most care home residents being tested.
“We’ve known about this for more than two months and not even today can we say we’ve tested all those people who may be at risk.
“This is a disease where people don’t have symptoms even though they are contagious and it’s been rushing through care homes.
“We now know they didn’t have the capacity, but they should have been building up the capacity.
“I’m amazed that every NHS worker hasn’t been tested and every carer hasn’t been tested.
“If we are to prevent a second wave and get the R number down then social distancing and hand washing is not enough, what we have to do is test, test, test.”
Matt Hancock yesterday announced coronavirus testing would be rolled out to anyone over the age of five who is showing symptoms.
Previously only people over 65, key workers or their families, were allowed to get one.
But Mr Brown said he believes Britain should already be offering testing for all UK citizens as it looks to lift lockdown measures in the coming months.
He added: “I would have said that instead of this slogan ‘Stay Alert’ the slogan should have been ‘Get Tested’ and we should be providing the facilities for that to happen.
“Boris Johnson should really come to the Houses of Parliament tomorrow and make a statement on how testing is going to be ramped up to hundreds of thousands a day, not 100,000.
“You can’t end the lockdown without offering people the testing.”
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It comes as the UK’s daily coronavirus death toll fell to its lowest since lockdown was introduced, with 160 fatalities over the last 24 hours.
Boris published his own full roadmap to end the coronavirus lockdown last week.
The PM published a lengthy plan to get the country back to normal with an array of changes.
