LindyB
There are no tests at all to be had in Surrey, so how can anybody tell if the numbers are increasing. My son has been trying to get a test for his 12 month old with very high temperature and cough, told to do so when seen by the hospital doctor who was not allowed to look in his throat or ears, presumably because of coronavirus, absolutley no tests available, this is a fiasco.
But it's world beating!
The government has just revealed that there's a 185,000 swab backlog and the system is so stretched it's sending tests to labs in Italy and Germany.
UK labs have the capacity to test more, but there are problems in the supply chain for testing equipment. That's apart from the tests which have simply gone missing.
People on local Facebook groups have been reporting all day that they can't get tests. This is an area without any food processing plants or sweat shops, has relatively low density housing, is on average quite elderly, hasn't had an influx of tourists or students and, on the whole, people have tried to do the right thing. In other words, we don't fit the stereotypes and it would be difficult to blame anybody.
Nevertheless, the number of new cases has increased tenfold in two weeks and people can't get tested. Understandably, they're frustrated and worried - as are people across the country. It wouldn't surprise me if the schools are half empty tomorrow - so much for all the virtue signalling about education being so important and concern about children's mental health? If the government hadn't tried so hard to score political points and had listened to people who actually know what it's like in schools and workplaces, thus could have been mitigated.
The real number of cases is probably higher than admitted, which is already bad enough.
Looking at the local figures, I note that almost the whole of Norfolk is an "area of concern". Strangely, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, where there are food processing plants have quite a low number of cases. Parts of Suffolk also have a high number of cases, including Matt Hancock's own constituency.
As a matter of urgency, the government needs to stop coming up with daft ideas such as Moondrop, stop outsourcing to cronies and stop pretending everything is fine. It needs to start listening to the people on the ground and take action. It can't pretend any longer that it's been taken by surprise because it's had months to plan this. Instead it wastes its time sacking civil servants, breaking the law and threatening human rights and more.