The Government has missed its target for Coronavirus testing for the fifth day in a row. New figures show 86,583 tests were provided in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday - an increase of around 17,000 on the day before, but still dramatically below the 100,000 a day target.
It comes after Downing Street blamed yesterday's dramatic drop in tests provided on "technical issues" in a single lab. Just 69,463 tests were conducted, well below the 100,000 daily target, although there was capacity to carry out 100,454.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Yesterday's figures reflect some particular technical issues which affected the number of samples which were processed over the proceeding 24 hours. "These were issues which arose in a