No shortage of Covid-19 lateral flow tests says senior civil servant

A senior civil servant has said there is no shortage of Covid-19 lateral flow tests (LFTs).

Responding to concerns about access to LFTs, Sir Chris Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, said the issues lay with distribution, rather than availability.

Sir Chris told the Commons Public Accounts Committee: “The challenge is not a lack of lateral flow tests. The challenge is the distribution system.”

He added: “The limiting factor is the ability to distribute, not the availability. We are expecting to make some announcements later today on that issue.”

NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the health service was increasing the delivery of booster jabs while “preparing for a potential significant wave of hospitalisation”.

She told MPs: “At the moment the indications are it could be as big or even bigger than the previous wave this time last year.”

A record 656,711 booster and third doses of Covid-19 vaccine were reported in the UK on Tuesday, new figures show.

The previous record was 550,253 doses on Saturday.

A total of 24.7 million booster and third doses have now been delivered in the UK, with 3.4 million in the past seven days.

The figures have been published by the UK’s four health agencies.