Coronavirus: back to wall, UK government promises more screening tests

British government health advisers at a press conference by videoconference at 10 Downing Street on March 31, 2020. Pippa Fowles / 10 Downing Street / Handout via REUTERS

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While the past 24 hours have been the deadliest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, pressure is mounting on the government of Boris Johnson to increase testing for the virus.

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With our correspondent in London, Muriel Decroix

Daily press briefings at Downing Street are becoming increasingly uncomfortable for the British government. Faced with pressing questions from journalists who relayed the serious concerns of caregivers, ministers and medical advisers continue to promise the imminent increase in drug tests. But they do not say when and their assurances remain hopelessly vague or even contradictory.

This Wednesday, an official of the health authorities thus announced that the strategy would now be to increase the detection of the virus within the whole population, whereas the day before her colleague had affirmed the opposite, warning that the medical personnel would be priority.

Only 2,000 caregivers tested out of 500,000

In addition, the government had to admit that only 2,000 caregivers had been tested out of a total of 500,000. In reality, the authorities are currently unable to move up a gear because they have the greatest difficulty obtaining supplies when 'a vast world race is launched to equip itself en masse.

Result the helplessness of the government of Boris Johnson is now criticized by his political opponents, the medical profession but also by his traditional allies, in particular the tabloid press on the right which condemns a response too slow and demands " the end of the fiasco ". The Covid-19 has killed 563 people in the UK in the past 24 hours, for a total of 2,352 deaths. It was the deadliest day since the start of the pandemic in the country.

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  • United Kingdom
  • Coronavirus
  • Boris Johnson
  • Health and Medicine

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