Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 2nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase covid-19 testing capacity in the community in addition to the local covid-19 testing centres.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 10th September 2020

Since NHS Test and Trace launched, 3,529,188 people have been tested across the United Kingdom, of which 65.5% were tested under Pillar 2 (national swab testing) and 34.5% under Pillar 1 (testing in hospitals and outbreak locations). We are working to ensure that we continue to scale capacity to increase this number, allowing more people to be tested should they need it.

We have exceeded the 200,000 testing capacity target, with current capacity standing at 326,086 as at 17 August 2020. We have established a network of testing sites across the UK with 73 Regional Test Sites, 17 Local Test Services (walk through), 22 Satellite Testing Centres and 236 Mobile Testing Units and we will look to increase this in the coming months to meet our needs.

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