Covid-19: Lack of capacity led to halting of community testing in March, admits deputy chief medical officer

The UK’s decision to stop community testing and contact tracing for covid-19 in early March was partly driven by a lack of testing capacity, England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, has admitted.

On 12 March, as cases of the virus soared, the government announced that it would stop all community testing for covid-19 and focus instead on testing people in hospitals and protecting health workers as it moved from the “contain” phase to the “delay” phase. …