'Everybody is frustrated' over UK testing, top health official says

One of Britain's top health officials said on Thursday that everybody was frustrated that the United Kingdom was not testing enough people yet.

"Everybody involved is frustrated that we haven't got to the position yet that we need to get to," Paul Cosford, emeritus medical director of Public Health England, told BBC radio.

"We've got not as far as we've wanted to but we've got up to almost 13,000 tests a day being available," he said.

When asked about the 31% rise in the latest UK death toll numbers, Cosford said the day-to-day numbers were difficult to interpret on one day's change.

"My expectation ... is that we will continue to see an increase in the numbers of people being infected and admitted to hospital over the next two to three weeks but we should hit a plateau if all the social distancing measures are working in about two to three week's time, maybe longer."

(Reuters)