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AIBU?

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to think that it's not the capacity but the actual number of tests being carried out to see if people have Covid that counts

1 reply

chomalungma · 12/09/2020 20:28

We are told repeatedly we have the 320,000 capacity.

But here's some more specific details

It looks like we have the capacity to carry out 250,000 tests per day to see if people HAVE Covid-19. Yet only 205,000 tests were carried out - so something is going wrong there. Oh - and 250,000 is not 320,000, Boris

Data is available online

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing

There are 4 Pillars of tests

Pillar 1 + 2 - these are the tests that you can BOOK to see if you have the disease

Pillar 3 - this is the antibody test to see if you have HAD it.
Pillar 4 - this is the ONS test carried out by the ONS to determine prevalence in the community. You can't book it.

Yesterday:

Pillar 1 + 2 - capacity was 243,000. There were 205,000 tests carried out. Which is not bad - although it's unclear how many people that is - as 1 person is 2 tests

Pillar 3 - capacity 120,000. There were 6000 tests carried out

Pillar 4 - capacity 11,000. Tests carried out 15,000 (which is a bit strange)

It seems they are merging the 'tests to see if you have it' and 'the tests to see if you have had it' into 1 large figure - and just basing it on the number of tests that can be carried out.

Very Yes Prime Minister approach.

OP posts:
chomalungma · 13/09/2020 10:30

Same misleading statistic repeated this morning on Marr

And talk of going up to 500,000 tests

I guess they'll just get lots of antibody tests but not use them. Just have them in the lab.

The key number is how many people can get a test to see if they have it.

OP posts:
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