The number of people being tested for coronavirus in the UK has fallen in recent days, even as concern about the disease's spread grows.

Official government figures show fewer people have been tested for the virus this week compared to the previous seven days.

Public health experts have suggested that the lack of testing is part of a response from the UK government which could be encouraging the spread of the disease.

NHS England has committed to undertake "significant expansion" of the number of tests in the UK and while it has not offered an official explanation as to why the numbers have gone down, it is understood the new measures are designed to address a lack of capacity to date.

A statement said that "enhanced labs" would allow for the testing of 10,000 people each day, a vast increase on current numbers.

“Wider testing is important as it will help to manage demand as the number of people being tested increases in the coming weeks," said Sharon Peacock, Director of the National Infection Service at Public Health England, said when those new measures were announced.

"This will ensure that PHE and the NHS have the most robust system possible to understand what is happening with the virus."

Numbers taken from the official government website, and assembled by the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, show the numbers of people being tested is yet to increase as the virus spreads.

That is despite the fact that almost every day over the last week has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people actually testing positive for COVID-19.

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John Ashton, the former regional director of Public Health England, has said the lack of testing could help the disease spread more quickly.

“I’m tearing my hair out really, with this," he told Newsnight.

“I want to know why we are not testing, why we haven’t tested those people coming back from Italy and who are now amongst us. We’ve got a recipe for community spread here."

One man who suspects he may have coronavirus said the NHS's 111 service is "overwhelmed", and that he had found it impossible to get tested as well as receiving incorrect information.