Rhondda Cynon Taf Council leader 'furious' after proposed cap on coronavirus tests in Wales

On Friday evening there were proposals for a cap on coronavirus tests at testing centres.

The leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council said he was 'furious' after being told tests for coronavirus were going to be capped at 60 at additional testing centres.

The UK Government oversees the lab capacity for those tests. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "NHS Test and Trace is working, our capacity is the highest it has ever been and we continue to work closely with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure local areas can access the testing they need.

“New booking slots for tests are made available daily for those who need them and we are targeting testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, and prioritising at-risk groups.

“Our laboratories are processing more than a million tests a week and we recently announced new facilities and technology to process results even faster.”

Cllr Morgan said he was 'furious' over a proposed cap on coronavirus tests.

Meanwhile, hundreds of tests were still able to be offered in Rhondda Cynon Taff today after a late night effort between the council, the Welsh Government, the ambulance service and the local health board. 

Cllr Andrew Morgan, the Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council told ITV Wales: "We've been able to increase the capacity from what was last night going to be 60 tests to now 420, but doing that at 10 or 11 o'clock on a Friday night is not the way to run a service which is supposed to be world leading."

The UK Government says its laboratories are processing more than a million tests a week.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething MS told ITV Wales: "By 10 o'clock this morning we delivered a Welsh solution to deal with the problem we had.

"I then had a conversation with Matt Hancock later this morning at 11:30 and there's more progress with more testing capacity being delivered tomorrow so plenty to learn - this is about working together with other governments to deliver the right services to Wales but really I want to be focused on getting this right and making sure this doesn't happen again."