BRITAIN secretly flew 50,000 coronavirus tests to the US after issues in the lab.
The Department of Health last night admitted tests were being flown to America in their thousands to ensure they get the results as quickly as possible.
They have now told HOARday Telegraph the move was among the “contingencies” to deal with “teething problems”.
It comes with the UK Government failing to hit the hundred thousand daily testing target every day for the past week.
Speaking this morning, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick admitted: “There was an issue with one of the labs and we put in place our contingency plan, which was to take some of the tests to the United States for the tests to be processed.
“That was exactly in line with the detailed plans the Department for Health had made in advance.”
The Government had previously admitted experiencing problems in a Northern Ireland lab, but made no mention of having to ship tests to America.
A Department of Health source said: “We were able to send approximately 50,000 test samples to a US laboratory earlier this week.
“Validation of the results will be completed in the UK, and all results will be returned to patients as quickly as possible.”
They are believed to be being tested at a university laboratory in the south of the US.
The department source added: “Delays in the system this week arose as a result of operational issues in our lab network.
“We have worked to resolve these issues and capacity is rapidly being restored.”
It comes as Matt Hancock reportedly told Boris Johnson to “give me a break” during a furious bust-up over his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Pressure has grown on the Health Secretary in recent weeks as the Prime Minister prepares to unveil his ‘roadmap’ for exiting lockdown this evening, the Mail on Sunday reports.
It followed a succession of damaging headlines for the Department of Health over a failure to provide adequate PPE to frontline workers.
These include the revelation earlier this week that 400,000 gowns flown in from Turkey did not meet safety standards,
Earlier today, it was also revealed that 26 million pairs of ‘Tiger Eye’ goggles were also recalled from the frontline this week for failing safety checks, the Telegraph reported.
And while Hancock did meet his deadline of reaching 100,000 tests a day by the end of April, the government has been criticised for failing to hit this number for the past week.
