Get the latest on coronavirus. Sign up to the Daily Brief for news, explainers, how-tos, opinion and more.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has admitted Covid-19 testing has fallen to below 100,000 a day, putting it down to a “technical issue.”
Speaking to Sky News on Thursday, Lewis reiterated the prime minister’s pledge to create capacity for 200,000 tests a day by the end of the month but revealed that an issue at the laboratories responsible for the tests had hampered the government’s plans.
“Well, we are determined and we are confident that we can get to the capacity of 200,000 a day by the end of the month,” Lewis said.
“I would just stress as well, the capacity level has remained at over 100,000 over the last few days, the number of tests conducted, yes, you’re absolutely right has fallen below 100,000 it was about 69,000… 69,500 yesterday.
“But there has been a bit of an issue at the labs, there’s been a technical issue. That’s not surprising with a completely new test and a new diagnostics system we’ve put in place.
“But that technical issue is now dealt with so we’ll see that capacity and demand levels coming up.
“But the capacity has remained over demand and above 100,000.”
Lewis refused to disclose how much money was spent on a shipment of gowns flown in from Turkey which were deemed unusable.
Describing them as “not of the quality that we feel is good enough for our frontline staff”, Lewis said: “Well, when we’re securing PPE from around the world you do it based on a set of standards that you’re looking to acquire to, but obviously once it’s here we check that it is good enough for what we want to use, and in this instance some of this PPE turned out not to be good enough.”
He continued: “There was a view that it was good enough PPE, it is only when it has got here that teams have looked at it again and taken a view that it is not up to the right standard and they’ve decided not to use it.
“I think it is right that if we have got particular standards for what we want our frontline staff to be able to have access to we make sure we stick to that.
“If something isn’t right, if we’re not even sure about it then I think it is better to be safe and not use that product and stick with products we are confident are the right products and the right standards.”