Covid: UK does not have enough testing capacity, Boris Johnson admits

Boris Johnson has admitted the UK does not currently have enough testing capacity to meet the demands of the pandemic, but insisted the government was working towards a goal of 500,000 a day by the end of October.

Pressed on the chaos in the testing system, the prime minister said: “The short answer to that is no we don’t. We don’t have enough testing capacity now because in an ideal world I would like to test absolutely everybody that wants a test immediately.”

However, the prime minister said there had been a “massive” increase in demand which had accelerated over the last couple of weeks.