Responding to reports that the Government may not reach the 100k test target, acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: “Given the figures reported daily over the last few weeks, few will be surprised that the Government look unlikely to hit today’s target.
“Ultimately this is not about targets and arbitrary deadlines. This is about the fact we have millions of frontline workers who have not been tested and the that Government still seems miles away from establishing the testing and tracing infrastructure we need to safely manage the move out of lockdown.
“Yesterday we saw the number of deaths reach 26,000, each one a tragedy, and the true number of deaths could be significantly higher.
“The Government should be developing a proper strategy for a test, trace and isolate system immediately rather than arbitrary targets they fail to meet.”