The UK is on course to break its pledge to carry out 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by a large margin

• Boris Johnson's government is on course to break its pledge to carry out 100,000 daily tests for the coronavirus by the end of April.
• The latest figures show that just 21,626 daily tests were carried out as of Monday morning.
• Senior Downing Street sources on Monday attempted to distance themselves from the target, suggesting that figure would "come back to bite" the Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
• However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also promised in March to ramp up testing to 250,000 per day.
• The prime minister's spokesman said on Tuesday that the target remains in place.
• "We've said throughout that that is a government target and we're working hard to hit it," the spokesman said.
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Boris Johnson's government is on course to miss its own pledge to carry out 100,000 tests for the coronavirus every day by the end of April.

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last month that the UK would ramp up its testing regime to meet the figure.

However, just 19,316 daily tests were carried out as of 9 am on Monday - more than 80,000 tests below the target.

The testing capacity — which describes the number of tests that can be carried out each day — also dropped by 2,000 on Monday to 36,000. The tests establish whether someone is currently infected with the coronavirus.

Senior Downing Street sources on Monday reportedly attempted to distance themselves from the 100,000 figure, suggesting that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, was personally responsible for the figure, which they predicted would "come back and bite him," according to a Telegraph report.

However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also promised in March to ramp up testing to 250,000 per day, although he did not set a timeframe by which he hoped to achieve that.

"By the same token we're massively increasing the testing to see whether you have it now and ramping up daily testing from 5,000 a day, to 10,000 to 25,000 and then up at 250,000," Johnson said at a Downing Street press conference on March 19.

The prime minister's spokesman on Tuesday publicly insisted the government remains committed to the 100,000 figure.

"We've said throughout that that is a government target and we're working hard to hit it," they said.

"I think the story you're referencing was one quoting an "insider close to Downing Street" which I must admit is a new one to me. But whoever they are, they are wrong."

Asked if the prime minister has full confidence in Hancock he replied: "Yes."

Science advisers to the government have warned that mass testing will be key to easing the lockdown measures currently in place across the UK.

Professor Neil Ferguson, one of Boris Johnson's top advisers on the coronavirus outbreak, said earlier in April that the government could use mass testing to open up the economy again once the rate of infection had reached its peak.

"We want to move to a situation by at least the end of May where we can substitute some less intensive measures — more based on technology and testing — than the current lockdown," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on April 4.

The UK has struggled to ramp up testing as fast as other European countries, however.

The government's strategy for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak did not initially focus on testing, meaning other countries had already taken up much of the demand by the time the government began to try to order testing kits in significant enough quantities, according to a Buzzfeed News report.

Countries including South Korea and Taiwan — which have experience in dealing with virus outbreaks — have successfully contained Covid-19 by introducing a rigorous programme of testing and contact-tracing which means they have not been forced to introduce strict social distancing measures like many other countries.

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, has also called on the government to urgently ramp up its testing so that it could begin emulating countries like South Korea by rolling out a contact tracing regime.

The method sees governments use testing data to track down people infected with the virus, then identify people they have been in contact with, and isolate them so that the rate of infection slows dramatically.

"This is why contact tracing needs to be our next national mission," Jeremy Hunt said, according to the Politics Home website.

"The countries that have had the biggest success in keeping coronavirus deaths low are places like Korea and Germany, that haven't just done a lot of testing but they use the data from testing to track down people who have the virus, people they've been in contact with, to isolate and quarantine them as well."