Failure to explain UK's halt to mass Covid-19 testing in March 'unacceptable'

Public Health England must give scientific reasoning, MPs say in letter to Boris Johnson

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The failure to explain why the government took the significant and consequential decision to drop community testing at the start of the coronavirus outbreak is unacceptable, MPs have said in a damning letter to Boris Johnson.

The science and technology committee's investigation into the early handling of the pandemic calls for Public Health England to explain the scientific reasoning behind abandoning mass testing to concentrate instead on testing limited numbers in its own laboratories.