Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to reveal whether he has delivered on his pledge to process all coronavirus tests within 24 hours by the end of June.
The Prime Minister promised on June 3 that every test would be turned around within one day by the end of the month.
But Downing Street has so far not provided any data on progress towards hitting the target with the deadline now having passed.
Experts believe the swift processing of tests is crucial to stopping the spread of the deadly disease because the sooner a positive test is identified, the sooner that person’s contacts can be traced and told to self-isolate, breaking the chain of transmission.
It came as a new survey of more than 300 care homes found approximately one in eight residents had not yet been tested for coronavirus.
Respondents told the National Care Forum (NCF) that 2,318 staff (9 per cent of the total) and 1,706 (12 per cent) of residents in care homes in England are still awaiting Covid-19 tests.
This is despite all homes with residents over 65 having been offered testing and Health Secretary Matt Hancock pledging on May 15 that ‘every resident and every member of staff in our elderly care homes in England’ would be tested ‘between now and early June’. The NCF data suggests the Government has missed this target.
Boris Johnson, pictured in Dudley yesterday, is under pressure to reveal whether he has met his pledge to process all coronavirus tests within 24 hours by the end of June
The UK currently has a daily testing capacity of approximately 280,000. Pictured is a drive-through testing station in Chessington on May 1
Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock have faced questions throughout the pandemic over the amount of time it takes for people to get their test results.
The Prime Minister was grilled on the issue in the House of Commons on June 3 by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Mr Hunt had asked the Prime Minister to reveal how many tests were currently being processed within 24 hours and to commit to publishing that number on a regular basis.
Mr Johnson replied: ‘The answer is that we already turn around 90 per cent of tests within 48 hours.
‘The tests conducted at the 199 testing centres, as well as the mobile test centres, are all done within 24 hours, and I can undertake to him now to get all tests turned around in 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that.’
Downing Street has been repeatedly pressed in recent days to give an update on whether the Government was on track to hit the end of June target. However, data on the issue has not been released.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman was yesterday unable to say whether the pledge had been met.
The spokesman said: ‘We said that was something that we wanted to achieve by the end of the month and we’re talking to Department of Health and Social Care about how we can make that data available.
‘We’ve been working to turn around those test results as quickly as possible but I don’t have those figures for you.’
The Government’s failure to set out any progress which may have been made towards hitting the target has prompted concerns that the deadline has not been met.
Mr Hunt has previously written to the Prime Minister seeking an update and reassurances that efforts were on track.
Last week the Tory chairman of the Health Select Committee said: ‘Test and Trace needs rapid turnaround of test results to be effective so I am concerned that I have still not had a reply to my earlier letter to the Prime Minister asking for data on 24 hour test turnaround.
‘Today I have written again asking him to confirm that we are on track to meet his 24 hour turnaround target by the end of June.’
The members NCF, which represents 120 of the UK’s social care charities, surveyed employ 24,681 staff and support 14,213 residents in 332 care homes.
The results, covering from early May to June 25, showed about 445 staff (three per cent) and 767 residents (eight per cent) tested positive. Residents and staff were only tested once.
Of these, 53 per cent of staff (239) and 30 per cent of residents (233) were asymptomatic.
The NCF said this is a ‘vital indication of the need for routine and repeat testing in care homes to manage the risk of transmission’.
The majority of respondents stated that, on average, it took up to four days to receive test results.
NCF executive director Vic Rayner said: ‘Testing of all those receiving care in care homes and the staff delivering it must continue to be an absolute priority.
‘What we see from the results is the need for ongoing routine and regular testing of residents and staff in care homes.
‘It’s encouraging to see the high number of care homes that have received Covid-19 testing to date, but this cannot be a one-time arrangement.
‘It is vital that we move to regular and repeat testing in our fight against Covid-19 in care homes, in order to continue to keep people safe and prevent the spread of infection.’