Leaked documents have exposed the scale of the coronavirus testing backlog as the average results for care homes now take more than three days.
The "world-beating" system has a backlog of 185,000 swabs, according to a paper seen by the Sunday Times. A Department of Health and Social Care report marked "Official: sensitive" also claimed the system is so strained it is sending tests to labs in Italy and Germany It comes after official figures showed the waiting times for test results have soared - just as coronavirus cases surge once again in the UK.
The average time taken to get a result from a 'satellite' test kit - used in care homes among other places - is now 83 hours, up from 28 hours in June.