Public support for coronavirus strategy slumps as new testing chaos is exposed

The share who say it has been handled badly jumped from 40 to 50 per cent. It means a positive net score of two has been transformed into a negative 18 result since August, the worst recorded so far by the pollster.

Troubles mounted for the Prime Minister a day after he announced his six-month clampdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. The new restrictions came under fire from some scientists for not going far enough — and from business leaders for devastating the recovery of the London economy.

Kevin Fenton, the head of Public Health England in London, disclosed the fall in testing during a meeting with leaders of the 32 boroughs and the Mayor, the Standard can reveal. According to one source who took part in the private virtual meeting, Professor Fenton made clear that the current testing levels alone could not track the progress of the disease in the capital.

The source said the health chief said that other indicators such as hospital admissions and 111 calls were rising and that modelling suggested that London could now be in a similar position to the North East, where partial lockdown measures came in last week.

“He was very clear that London is seeing exponential growth in the virus and that the levels of testing are not adequate to control the epidemic,” the source said.

The Department of Health has refused to publish testing figures for London despite several requests.

Last week the Standard reported that Baroness Harding, the head of NHS Test And Trace, had admitted that 20 per cent of London testing capacity had been diverted to other regions that were being hit harder by the virus. But the numbers revealed by Professor Fenton suggest a 28 per cent drop in community testing.

Yesterday Mr Johnson said: “Testing and tracing has very little or nothing to do with the spread or the transmission of the disease.”

This morning his measures were criticised by Professor John Edmunds, dean of the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He warned that they did not go “anywhere near far enough” to stop the epidemic spreading and accused the Government of repeating the mistake of being too slow to act at the start of the first Covid-19 wave.

He also argued that the 10pm curfew on pubs, restaurants and clubs was likely to have a “trivial” effect. Professor Edmunds, who sits on the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies but was speaking in a personal capacity, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I suspect we will see very stringent measures coming in place throughout the UK at some point, but it will be too late again.

"Then we’ll have the worst of both worlds, because then to slow the epidemic and bring it back down again, all the way down to somewhere close to where it is now or where it was in the summer will mean putting the brakes on the epidemic for a very long time, very hard — which is what we had to do in March because we didn’t react quick enough and so I think that we haven’t learned from our mistake and we’re unfortunately about to repeat it.”

Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer in England, is reported to have warned the PM that a stricter clampdown would be needed.

Defending the clampdown in England, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said if “everyone plays by the rules” outlined by Mr Johnson, restrictions similar to those imposed in March may not be needed at Christmas.

Mr Raab insisted the UK Government's approach was "focused, balanced and proportionate".

He told Sky News: "Let's hope that we can get through the winter months if we take these measures and if everyone plays by the rules, and we go into Christmas not needing to go into that national lockdown with all the impact on society and families but also the damage it would do to businesses."

He said if further measures are required, they will be "more intrusive or we could end up in a national lockdown", and added: "That is what we want to avoid."

Steve Reed, the shadow communities secretary, said: “Ministers should have spent the summer expanding test and trace but, instead of the ‘world-beating’ system the Prime Minister promised, it is near collapse.”

"We need these basics in place so we can stop the virus from spreading.

“The Government must get a grip of this testing fiasco, or Londoners could face more severe restrictions with all the damage that will mean for jobs and livelihoods."

Prof Fenton, London director for Public Health England, warned earlier this week of a “rising tide of coronavirus cases across a broad range of ages” in the capital despite testing figures showing the number of people testing positive was falling.

“I would urge everyone to pull together and help reverse this upward trend,” he stressed.

Health chiefs look at a variety of indicators including covid tests, hospitalisations, 111 calls, GP attendance, antibody levels and modelling which together have confirmed that cases across the capital are steadily rising.

Both City Hall and London Councils issued warnings after yesterday’s meeting with Prof Fenton that testing was inadequate in London.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The situation has undoubtedly been made worse by the Government’s unforgivable lack of a fully functioning and effective test, trace and isolate system in London.

“Ordinary Londoners are making big sacrifices to keep each other safe. Now the Government must make getting a proper grip on test and trace its number one priority.”

Peter John, chair of London Councils, said: “It is deeply worrying that people are not getting test appointments in the London area due to lack of capacity.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Thousands of tests are taking place every day across London’s dozens of sites and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise.

“We are processing tests on an unprecedented scale and the vast majority of people are tested within 6 miles of their home.

“And we are expanding testing capacity further, by bringing in new labs that can process tens of thousands of tests a day, opening new test sites, and trialling new rapid tests that will give results on the spot.”

Ipsos MORI interviewed 1,013 adults by phone from September 11 to 18.