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| Coronavirus: Many wait over 24 hours for test results | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Many people in England are still waiting longer than 24 hours for their coronavirus test results, figures show. | Many people in England are still waiting longer than 24 hours for their coronavirus test results, figures show. |
| Four in 10 tests done by mobile units and three in 10 carried out at regional drive-thru centres were taking longer than that, data up to 24 June reveals. | |
| Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he expected such tests to be processed in 24 hours by the end of June. | Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he expected such tests to be processed in 24 hours by the end of June. |
| But the data - the first released on 24-hour turnaround times - shows significant progress has been made. | |
| Four times as many tests are being processed within a day as were being done at the start of June when the prime minister made his pledge. | |
| He said 24-hours turnarounds would be achieved by the end of the month, apart from for those posted out - care homes and households can request postal kits if they do not want to use one of the testing centres. | |
| How quickly are tests processed? | |
| The Department of Health figures showed 24-hour turnaround performance of: | The Department of Health figures showed 24-hour turnaround performance of: |
| Alongside these testing routes, hospitals also test patients. More than nine in 10 of those are processed within 24 hours. | |
| The figures released by the government also included performance for the contact-tracing system. | |
| The results are broadly in line with previous weeks - one in four people who test positive does not engage with the contact tracers. | |
| Of the 23,000 close contacts given by those who did, nearly 17,000 were reached and asked to isolate at home. | |
| NHS Test and Trace chairwoman Baroness Dido Harding said "tireless efforts" were being made to improve the service. | |
| She pointed out that for both mobile units and regional centres close to 100% were received within 48 hours. | |
| "If you have coronavirus symptoms, get a test immediately. You can be confident that you will receive your result quickly." | |
| Local lockdown 'not imminent in other areas' | |
| Meanwhile, government sources have said no other areas are facing the immediate risk of a local lockdown, following the restrictions imposed in Leicester after a surge in cases in the city. | |
| The latest figures for late June show there were 136 infections per 100,000 people in the past week. | |
| Figures released by Public Health England have revealed the top 10 areas with the highest infection rates. | |
| The next-highest, Bradford, has an infection rate three times lower. All those in the top five are experiencing falls in infection rates. | |
| It mirrors what is happening nationally. | |
| Overall infection rates have been falling since the prime minister signalled the first easing of restrictions in England on 10 May. | |
| That marked the end of the stay-at-home message in England, paving the way for people to spend more time outdoors, see more friends and family and - from mid-June - for shops to reopen. | |
| This weekend pubs, restaurants and hotels will follow suit. | |
| Other parts of the UK have taken similar steps. | |
| The number of confirmed positive tests reported is now a quarter of what it was in mid-May with fewer than 1,000 cases a day now being reported on average over the past week. |