Everyone says our testing situation is so unacceptable...

[IDSNeighbour]

... but, according to WHO:
we have the 14th highest number of tests per million in the world;
we're 7th in the list of countries with more than 1 million people;
we're top in the list of countries with more than 10 million people.

Can we really be doing so very badly? If we are, then the rest of the world must be just as bad?

@CarrotInATree I've just had exactly the same timing.

Child with symptoms -day 1
Ordered test within about 30 mins of being made aware of symptoms - day 1
Test despatched - day 1
(So far so good)
Test takes 27 hours to travel from Surrey to Essex back to me in Surrey according to the tracking data, arriving hours after the last posting time - day 2
Test taken and posted - day 3
Waiting days 4/5
Test result around lunchtime - day 6

By which point my child has missed nearly another week of school and we are on our knees from juggling two full on, full time jobs with entertaining a small child.

I got my DS a test on Friday for Saturday morning and got the result this morning. Friends who have been tested have had the results in 24 hours if not on the weekend so I guess it depends where you are.

Your issue is whether our testing system is processing tests quickly enough (its not). If you aren't then too many people become infected and the system overloads because demand outstrips supply. For the system to be viable and actually work you have to get ahead of the infection rate to prevent the expeditional rise that otherwise occurs.

We failed to do that, so the demands placed on our system are significantly higher than in other places.

You can only break that cycle if you suppress infection rates sufficiently or you increase capacity to exceed demand.

Speed of tests vs number of tests is a good point. It would be interesting to know if turnaround times are better in comparable countries - Spain, France, Netherlands etc

Dd has had a few tests because of her work.

Easy to get a test and results back the following day.

@IDSNeighbour

I don't think it necessarily shows much about Boris, either way. More than everyone involved is working as hard as they can and maybe it isn't possible to do a better job. There's a lot of people that need tests. It's really difficult that we can't turn them around more quickly. But I'm not convinced that's anyone's point. It's jsut like a traffic jam. Can't be helped.

Are you Dido Harding's mum?

Our testing system has failed.

I don't think a failing testing system is anything to be proud of.

The raw numbers just show the massive waste in the UK system. Germany, Taiwan etc - their testing systems are targeted and are actually usefully identifying where outbreaks occur.

We just have scattergun nonsense. Pouring money down the drain isn't success.

Quantity is not quality.

Testing turnaround times (particularly home testing) are close to or over the incubation time period. This drives up the R rate (the number of infections. Meaning more people need tests, and so it spirals.

If you order a home test that arrives after 12pm on a Saturday - you cant send it back until last post on a Monday. That in itself must delay a 5th of tests.

The actual system that allocates the test seems to be really buggy and hasn't been working.

The fines for non self islolation are political and pandering to the public scaremongering about what your neighbours are up to...

The actual trace element of the system is actually quite effective - but not really much use if close contacts are infecting people before trace get to them. But its in the governements interest to blame individuals not isolating rather than the fact there are underlying issues with the test system.

Our testing numbers are as fiddled as the number of PPE (where they count a pair of gloves twice). Each test is counted twice, once per swab. There’s further fiddling too because when they’ve said they did 240,000 ish tests that is 80,000ish people according to the ONS. They also sometimes include the antibodies test in the capacity number to bump it up.

The trace element of test and trace has consistently failed to trace and contact the target number needed to be effective.

Three friends have had tests this term. All waited more than five days for results. We’re in a high risk area.

I don't think a failing testing system is anything to be proud of

It's not that I thought it was something to be proud of at all. I was wondering more whether it was something that could be done any better or whether we were stretched to the limit, doing as much as is possible and without many examples of countries who were doing any better. In which case, there'd be no point moaning about the failure and we should be getting behind those who are working to try and make it better. But it seems from other posters that it probably is better in other countries and that we are testing too many of the wrong people.

I find it hard to believe we are really reporting double the tests we're actually doing though. Is that genuine, factual information?!

It's only one swab - same one for throat then nose. Not sure how that could be tested twice. There are some people who are tested more than once but that data is available.
The gloves thing I partly understand - our sterile gloves come in pairs. Our standard gloves come in a box of a few hundred. I would know that, someone involved in ordering would know that but I can easily picture someone higher up not reading the info properly and passing on wrong figures rather than a cover-up (I work for the NHS and am used to a fair amount of incompetence so it doesn't seem unusual to me)

Many of the adult ones are two swabs.

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/tens-thousands-coronavirus-tests-have-double-counted-officials/

I find it hard to believe we are really reporting double the tests we're actually doing though. Is that genuine, factual information?!

This was widely reported, the adult swabs are one for nose, one for throat = two.

Same as a single glove was counted as an item of PPE.

Its one swab. But its two areas tested: oropharyngeal and parapharyngeal.

So it could be counted as two. Bit shady, but there you go.

The only thing I have to say about the testing situation is this.

My partner's colleague booked a test as there had been an outbreak at the company and they have all been told to test. He was made to check in by scanning a bar code, then told to wait his turn. He waited for THREE hours, in a hot car, whilst unwell.

After these three hours, he had to leave to pick his children up from school.

Two days later, he received a text to inform him that his test had been positive.

He had never taken the test.

That's all I have to say.

There was also an issue around when home tests are counted--on sending out or on being processed. Apparently there is a disparity between the number sent out and the number returned.

In the whole system there is quite a lot of wastage and tests that are voided because of leaking or being transported at the wrong temperature, as well as those that aren't processed in time.

@OntheWaves40

People are getting tests regardless of circumstance. If you WFH or primary DC or furloughed etc then why bother testing? Just isolate and leave the tests for those who need to get back to work/school etc

I dunno on what planet primary aged kids who've already missed out on months of education don't need to get back to school rather than sit out another fortnight, but it's not this one. You undermine an otherwise reasonable point there.

The issues are
You shouldnt have to be testing everyone you should know who to test.
We need stricter punishment for

• going out with symptoms
• Not isolating when asked
• Sending kids to school or going to work while awaiting tests.

Do not go to the pub with any cold symptoms.

Testing is at risk because of all this.
I would test contacts so you can pin down their contacts.

Othervcoubtries arent sending kids in with no masks. Here those cases are in addition to all the economy ones.
Let kids study at home.
We tested dc1 negative but just sat out the time with the rest of us because
It's stressful going to an obviously contaminated site with kids
It would have been 4 trips and actually we all would have had to go for me as i dont drive
by the time results back it would have been a similar time.

I dont think they should prioritise kw kids because there just isnt any home provision (because of enforced schools) so some sickly kids will miss the whole year of work.I
AND you need kids tested ro shut bubbles for some safety
Instead they need to acknowledge that the need to prioritise kw children means their system does not work. The capacity for testing not there so you cant have full schools.

Reduce how ill the kids are getting will reduce the need for tests. Our useless covid insecure measures especially in school are causing this issue.

Lots of cases in schools in say manchester. Closing schools there now would reduce the need for those tests.
Smaller bubbles too.

Lots of cases in schools in say manchester. Closing schools there now would reduce the need for those tests.

Yes, clearly Manc kids getting to go into school should take second place to preserving the test supply for the more deserving.

@LindaEllen I took my son to be tested.
We didn’t get a barcode until handing the sample over. That was at a drive through site. They gave us the swab and container, a bag to put it in but instructed not to seal it, and an info leaflet.
We parked up, did the test, put the swab in the container, joined a queue where they gave me two barcode stickers to apply to the container and the sample bag which I had to seal myself. The barcode was scanned and matched to his details, I was given a barcode to take home then I placed the sample bag in a large bag with other samples.
I could have driven away at any time but the barcode wasn’t allocated to us until handing in the sample.

Very funny i obviously mean it is clearly going to escalate. And more and more tests needed. The traffic lights definitely implied schools would be at least half time in that situation or locally closed.
With those numbers there is clearly lots of transmission going on in the schools too so testing the odd symptomatic child isnt exactly going to help. As a poster on another thread said the kids will go back and be off again.
Makes more sense to assume all those schools have cases.
There are i think already 8k children there isolating.
Im not sure one area (whichever it is) right to education should result in everywhere in lockdown. That is not sensible.

Neither was your post.