Why has the UK lagged behind in testing for the coronavirus?

Britain has good expertise in diagnostics, but few firms with enough capacity to produce

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"Unlike some countries, we didn't go into this crisis with a huge diagnostics industry. We have the best scientific labs in the world, but we did not have the scale," Matt Hancock said this week, facing a barrage of questions on why the UK is lagging behind others on coronavirus testing.

The UK's health secretary said his German counterpart could call on 100 test labs and rely on the heavy presence of Roche, one of the world's largest diagnostics companies, to achieve its current level of more than 50,000 tests a day. The UK had had to build from a lower base, he said.