Government in the hot seat: run on Covid-19 tests

The government has apologised after Matt Hancock’s attempt to test essential workers for coronavirus ran into problems within hours of its launch.

The health secretary had promised that from 6am on Friday morning up to 10 million essential workers and their families would be able to apply for a drive-in test or home-testing kit.

The Department for Health and Social Care blamed the problems on “significant demand”. In a tweet it apologised for the inconvenience and promised more tests would be available on Saturday.