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The government has once again failed to hit its daily target for 100,000 Covid-19 tests – despite Boris Johnson aiming to double the figure.
According to the latest Department of Health and Social Care figures, 85,293 tests were carried out or posted to people in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Tuesday.
The government had said it wanted be testing 100,000 people a day for coronavirus by the end of April, and met the target amid claims health secretary Matt Hancock had manipulated the figures.
Since then, the total has repeatedly slipped below 100,000 a day.
After hitting 100,000 for the first time, the prime minister set a new “ambition” to double the total.
Johnson said on his return to the dispatch box after recovering from coronavirus: “The ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month and then to go even higher.”
Johnson has previously said he would like the UK to carry out 250,000 tests a day.
It was not clear whether the prime minister wanted to carry out 200,000 tests a day by June, but Downing Street later said that the target was simply about building capacity to those levels.