As numbers of cases surge, many people are finding it almost impossible to get tested
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While Boris Johnson dismissed criticism of the government’s testing system as an attempt to denigrate those “trying to keep us safe” and urged the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, to be more supportive, many people with suspected coronavirus are unable to access testing.
There were fresh reports on Wednesday of people with Covid-19 symptoms being offered tests hundreds of miles away and teachers without symptoms being forced to spend days off school as they cannot easily get tests for their symptomatic children, after the head of the NHS test-and-trace service apologised and promised to swiftly expand laboratory capacity.