From the Telegraph:
Mr Hancock echoed the Prime Minister's words that the Government is "ramping up" testing across the UK, but acknowledged that tests are currently reserved for patients in intensive care.
"We're expanding testing, buying more tests made abroad and the UK," he said.
"At the minute we're having to reserve tests for those in intensive care."
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-latest-lockdown-panic-buying-news-cases-nhs/
Now, aside from the fact we have “no visibility on the enemy” doing such limited testing, I have two big questions with this —
*5,000 tests or so came back yesterday, does this mean we have 5,000 patients in ICU? Surely not, so either the test numbers are a lie or this statement by Hancock is a lie.
*If they’re only testing patients in ICU, that means suspected cases in non-ICU are all being thrown together until they reach ICU? Shouldn’t we bring trying to confirm hospitalised cases more rapidly than this — ideally test before they get to hospital? The Italian medical authorities are advocating care outside of hospitals as much as possible, as intra-hospital spread has been a major problem for them.