U.K. Apologizes After Website for Home Coronavirus Tests Runs Out

(Bloomberg) --

The U.K. government apologized after a new booking website for coronavirus tests ran out of supply within minutes of opening, as the country’s top medical official warned that the pandemic is far from over.

The web portal launched Friday as part of a plan to ramp up testing for Covid-19, following weeks of criticism over ministers’ response to the crisis.

But the 5,000 home testing kits that were available on the first day of the program were snapped up within two minutes, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, told reporters on a conference. The website closed for applications once another 15,000 testing slots available at drive-through centers had been allocated, he said.

The health department apologized in a tweet “for any inconvenience,” and the government later said the site would be re-opening on Friday. In future, tests will be available to book from 8 a.m. each day, with their release being staggered.

The surge in online applications shows the scale of the government’s challenge in meeting the demand for virus tests, after weeks of pressure to expand its testing regime. Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty warned that the epidemic will be “difficult for a long time,” suggesting at least some social-distancing measures will need to remain in place.

‘First Phase’

“We have not got through this epidemic by a long shot,” he told a panel of House of Commons lawmakers. “We’re just getting through the first phase.”

Officials gave up on testing and tracing confirmed cases in the community on March 12 to focus on confirming the infection in hospital patients. Ministers faced growing calls to reverse that decision and have been trying to make up lost ground ever since.

The government is now scrambling to meet a pledge made at the beginning of April to increase testing tenfold to 100,000 a day. While capacity is now up to about 51,000, the number of tests carried out has fallen well short of that, with the most recent daily data showing 28,532 were done on April 23.

To plug the gap, Health Secretary Matt Hancock expanded eligibility for the tests to 10 million key workers across the country and their families.

In other developments:

• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he’d authorized trials for drones to deliver medical supplies in the U.K.
• He also announced a support package to keep freight services running, including 17 million pounds ($13.8 million) for critical routes between Northern Ireland and Great Britain
• Shapps urged Britons to keep to the social-distancing guidelines this weekend, especially with warm weather forecast

Speaking to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, Whitty said the specific target of 100,000 tests a day wasn’t a recommendation from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies of which he’s a member, but that he’d been pushing for testing to ramp up.

“Having the ability to test allows for a better response,” Whitty said. Even so, “drawing a direct line between testing more and better outcomes is simplistic.”

In addition to more testing, the government is preparing a mass program to track and trace coronavirus cases, which will be required to control the outbreak and prevent a second wave of infections when a nationwide lockdown is relaxed. Hancock said authorities are recruiting 18,000 people to help operate the program, which he expects to be running within “weeks.”

‘Good Faith’

Much will depend on testing capacity keeping up with demand. On Friday, Slack indicated no rigorous checks are being carried out to assess whether applicants really are key workers.

“We would expect the public to respond in good faith,” he said.

Hancock has presented the ramped-up testing regime and the introduction of widespread contact tracing as the keys to exiting the current economic lockdown -- once the current infection rate comes down further.

Whitty said he doesn’t anticipate “that we’re suddenly going to be able to lift everything,” in terms of the lockdown restrictions, before adding: “but nor do I think it likely we will have to keep in exactly the current pattern for the indefinite future. There’s somewhere between those two.”

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