The UK National Health Service's (NHS) laboratories are not coping with processing COVID-19 tests, as they have reached "the critical pinch-point," Sarah-Jane Marsh, the director of testing at NHS Test and Trace, said on Tuesday, offering her apologies for the situation
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) The UK National Health Service's (NHS) laboratories are not coping with processing COVID-19 tests, as they have reached "the critical pinch-point," Sarah-Jane Marsh, the director of testing at NHS Test and Trace, said on Tuesday, offering her apologies for the situation.
Over the recent days, UK citizens in England reportedly complained of being directed hundreds of miles away from areas of their residence to take COVID-19 tests, as there had been no appointments available at the local test centers and no home test kits.
"Can I please offer my heartfelt apologies to anyone who cannot get a COVID test at present. All of our testing sites have capacity, which is why they don't look overcrowded, its our laboratory processing that is the critical pinch-point. We are doing all we can to expand quickly," Marsh wrote on Twitter.
The health official also said that some additional NHS, private and university laboratories would immediately open, while the use of non-laboratory based tests would be expanded.
"The Testing Team work on this 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. We recognise the country is depending on us," Marsh added.
The situation is aggravated by the recent reopening of educational institutions, as any student or teacher with coronavirus-like symptoms should be tested for the disease.
For two days in a row, the daily increment in the number of COVID-19 cases in the UK is nearly 3,000, marking the highest numbers of infections per day since May 22.
