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LONDON: Britain had to send evidence of coronavirus to the United States for processing after a problem in one of its laboratories, Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said on May 10.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that 50,000 test samples were sent on chartered flights to the United States last week.
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When asked about the report during an interview on Sky News, Jenrick said, “There was a problem with one of the labs, and we put our contingency plan in place, which was to bring some of the tests to the United States for them to evidence were processed. “
“That was exactly in line with the detailed plans that the Health Department had made in advance,” he added.
After being criticized for moving too slowly in mass testing compared to some countries like Germany, Britain has stepped up its testing program, but since reaching its 100,000 a day target in late April, it has struggled to maintain that level. .
The latest figures from the Health Department show that 1,728,443 tests were performed in total, including 96,878 on May 8.
The Department estimates that the number of confirmed new cases of coronavirus in Britain so far is 215,260 and the number of deaths is 31,587. That’s the second-highest death toll in the world after the United States, whose population is nearly five times higher.
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