Coronavirus: More than third of Wednesday's tests were postal kits, No 10 admits

More than a third of the 170,000 coronavirus tests claimed by the government on Wednesday were in fact kits sent out in the post, Downing Street has revealed.

The government was blasted by the UK's statistics watchdog earlier this week for "misleading" the public by including tests mailed to home addresses and NHS locations - which might never be used - in the tally announced at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing.

For the first time, No 10 today broke down the figures, revealing that out of 171,829 tests announced for the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday, some 60,209 were sent out in the post.

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