UK ‘may never hit coronavirus testing targets’ with lost samples and ‘chaotic’ test centres

BRITAIN may never meet its testing targets, experts warned — as it emerged samples had been lost.

Test stations are also chaotic, it was claimed.

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Staff at one drive-through centre said many people had to return for a second test because the first sample was missing.

Staff also had to use defective goggles.

The whistle-blower, a contractor with Sodexo at the Haydock Park centre in Merseyside, said: “It’s a shambles.

"We should be doing 2,000 tests a day but the most was 1,200. One day it was 150.”

PM Boris Johnson wants 200,000 tests a day but 100,000 has yet to be reached consistently.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, blamed lab closures and funding cutbacks.

And Nicola Stonehouse, University of Leeds ­professor in molecular virology, added: “The Government’s testing ­target is arbitrary but it remains to be seen if we can actually hit it.”

The Department of Health said “We are determined to make it fast and simple for all eligible people who need a test to get a test.”

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