The Health Secretary appeared on Sky News to discuss the announcement that people in England can no longer socialise in groups bigger than six following a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. Kay Burley unleashed a scathing criticism of the current test and trace system in England and questioned why some people were being forced to travel up to 250 miles for a coronavirus test.
Ms Burley said: “One of the members of independent SAGE described the testing and trace system as failing.
“It certainly is not fit for purpose at this stage.
“We spoke last week, and you said you are investing hundreds of millions of pounds more in order to improve it.
“Yet we saw a story on Twitter yesterday regarding a 250-mile round trip to Leicester is the closest place for a gentleman who needs a COVID test because he lives with his elderly parents.
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“One of my producers checked on the website and he can’t actually get a test because it says the service is very busy.
“You have to accept that at this stage test and trace is failing.”
Mr Hancock replied: “I completely reject that accusation.
“Firstly, we have the biggest testing system per head of population of all the major countries in Europe and we bult it essentially from scratch.
The death toll in Britain is currently over 41,000.
Worldwide there have been more than 27.7 million COVID-19 cases.
The death toll has reached more than 900,000.
More than 19.8 million people have recovered from the coronavirus across the globe.
