In his two-page letter, Mr Javid said: “We are constantly reviewing system performance and ways to maximise its response to the demand for tests.
“However, in light of the huge demand for LFDs seen over the last three weeks, we expect to need to constrain the system at certain points over the next two weeks to manage supply over the course of each day, with new tranches of supply released regularly throughout each day.
“We will continue making tests available to everyone who needs them, particularly vulnerable groups such as care home residents and those who work in critical sectors such as the care workforce.”
Mr Javid said the Government was ramping up orders and had doubled deliveries of LFDs from 120 million to nearly 300 million in December.
Omicron arrival creates unprecedented demand
“The arrival of the omicron variant has caused record case numbers and unprecedented demand for both PCR and LFD tests,” he said. “This has inevitably placed strain on the testing system despite the impressive scaling up of supply, logistics and laboratory capacity. Other countries have faced similar challenges.
“To respond to anticipated demand over the coming few weeks, we are buying hundreds of millions more LFD tests, bringing new products on board and accelerating their deployment to the public.
“We are also doubling our total delivery capacity with Royal Mail to 900,000 test packs and PCR tests a day. We are tripling the supply of LFDs in January and February from our pre-omicron plan of 100 million to 300 million per month.”
Mr Javid said the Government’s daily PCR capacity had been increased from 530,000 in November to 700,000 now, excluding those for NHS patients and staff. He added that 190,000 PCR tests were submitted by care homes in England for processing on Wednesday alone.
The Health Secretary also stressed that Britain was providing tests free of charge, unlike many other countries, adding: “We are doing more testing per head than any comparable country and we have focused recent communications on encouraging testing before seeing friends and relatives, particularly those who are vulnerable, over the festive period.”
