Downing Street has admitted just 2,000 of 500,000 frontline NHS workers have been tested for coronavirus as Matt Hancock today ordered hospitals to 'max out' testing capacity on doctors and nurses.

The government has faced fierce criticism of its testing efforts relating to health workers amid claims 15 per cent of the NHS workforce could be self-isolating and suggestions 85 per cent of them do not have coronavirus.

Ministers have been scrambling to boost the UK's testing capacity and today Number 10 said the nation now had the ability to conduct 12,750 tests a day.

However, the latest number of tests actually carried out was 8,630 on Monday - far below the capacity figure.

As a result, Mr Hancock, the Health Secretary, has now ordered the NHS to lift restrictions on staff testing.

NHS England had previously told hospitals they could only use 15 per cent of tests on staff with the rest to be used on patients.

But now the 15 per cent cap has been lifted and hospitals have been told they must now ensure any spare testing capacity is filled with staff tests.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has ordered all NHS hospitals to ramp up their testing of frontline workers

A letter sent to NHS trusts today by NHS England states that hospitals should 'max out' coronavirus testing capacity with checks on frontline workers

How has the approach to testing changed? Hospitals had been told that 85 per cent of coronavirus testing capacity should be reserved for patients with the remaining 15 per cent for staff. But there has been growing criticism of the government because while the UK's testing capacity has been rising, the total number of tests was still lagging behind. Meanwhile, ministers have also been under pressure because of the relative lack of testing of NHS workers. As a result the government today lifted the 15 per cent cap on staff tests with hospitals now being told to 'max out' capacity by testing more employees. Any spare capacity is to be used for staff. That means that while the focus of testing remains on patients, greater numbers of NHS staff should now be able to find out for certain if they have coronavirus. Advertisement

Downing Street said this morning that just over 2,000 of the NHS's 500,000 frontline staff had now been tested for the deadly disease.

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said this morning: 'We are very clear that we want more testing to be carried out.'

Dr Yvonne Doyle, Director for Health Protection at Public Health England, told the daily coronavirus press conference that the intention is to move from ‘tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands’ of NHS staff tests ‘over the coming weeks’.

A letter has now been sent to all chief executives of all NHS trusts and foundation trusts from NHS England and NHS Improvement setting out what is now expected on testing.

It states: 'Following our Sunday letter on staff testing, as lab capacity is increasing we now can and must further increase staff/index case testing. We want to max out all available capacity in doing so, and so are now removing the 15 per cent cap immediately.

'Effective today we are therefore asking chief executives of trusts that host an NHS lab doing COVID-19 testing personally to ensure that your lab's capacity is fully used each and every day.

'This can be achieved by using all spare testing for staff/index testing, either from within your own organisation or those of neighbouring acute and ambulance trusts.

'As soon as this has been implemented, and as extra lab volumes become available, the approach can over the coming days be extended to community, mental health and primary care services, along with social care.'

Hospitals are being told to swab large numbers of staff every day so that the nation's laboratories are constantly fed a supply of material to test.

Meanwhile, a nationwide list of swabs is being compiled so that they can be taken to labs which have spare testing capacity.

The Army will 'assist' in moving samples around the country 'as quickly as possible'.

The government's attempts to ramp up testing of frontline staff has seen unusual locations used for temporary sites.

Furniture giant Ikea has set up a drive-through testing centre for frontline NHS staff at its store in Wembley, north-west London.

Other retailers have offered to help set up testing facilities, with Boots setting up another drive-through system at its headquarters in Nottingham and more sites are being sourced around the country.

Currently, these facilities are reserved for NHS staff and by-invitation only. Members of the public are also asked not to attend Boots shops asking for a test, as no testing will be carried out in-store.

Tests have also been carried out in the car park of Surrey theme park Chessington World of Adventures.

It was claimed last night that more than one in ten NHS staff may currently be off work in self-isolation.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, estimated that 15 per cent of NHS staff were off work, and initial testing over the weekend had found that just 15 per cent of those self-isolating were infected with coronavirus.

'It's a very, very small sample size because we only really started doing staff testing properly Saturday-Sunday, but I'm told that the very early results from that very small sample did indicate that only 15 per cent of people taking the test were positive which effectively means that the other 85 per cent are potentially available to come back to work.'

He added: 'Our understanding is that as of the middle of... the late end of last week it was about 15 per cent of NHS staff, which given the sickness rate, absence rate that you would normally expect to see in the NHS of around I think 3-4 per cent, you can see how big that gap is.'