Sir Patrick Vallance says testing needs to be done at scale to find outbreaks and isolate people

Public Health England did not increase testing for Covid-19 as quickly as was needed to control the spread of the virus, the government’s chief scientific adviser has suggested.

Sir Patrick Vallance’s comments echo those of Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, who said a week ago that Germany “got ahead” in testing people for Covid-19 and that the UK needed to learn from that.

So far, the government has prioritised tests for seriously ill patients in hospital and frontline NHS staff. But Vallance said testing needed to be done at sufficient scale “to look at outbreaks and isolate”, as has happened in countries such as Germany and South Korea.

“I think at the beginning Public Health England [PHE] got off to a good start in terms of testing to try and make sure they caught people coming into the country with it,” he told ITV’s weekly Coronavirus Q&A show.

“I then think it’s not scaled as fast as it needs to scale – and that’s being done now. But I do think testing is an incredibly important bit of this. It needs to be done at scale, and it needs to be able to be done rapidly enough to look at outbreaks and isolate.”

Quick guide What to do if you have coronavirus symptoms in the UK Show Hide Symptoms are defined by the NHS as either: a high temperature - you feel hot to touch on your chest or back

a new continuous cough - this means you've started coughing repeatedly NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days.

If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home. After 14 days, anyone you live with who does not have symptoms can return to their normal routine. But, if anyone in your home gets symptoms, they should stay at home for 7 days from the day their symptoms start. Even if it means they're at home for longer than 14 days. If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days. If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible. After 7 days, if you no longer have a high temperature you can return to your normal routine. If you still have a high temperature, stay at home until your temperature returns to normal. If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you do not need to continue staying at home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.

Staying at home means you should: not go to work, school or public areas

not use public transport or taxis

not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home

not go out to buy food or collect medicine – order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home You can use your garden, if you have one. You can also leave the house to exercise – but stay at least 2 metres away from other people. If you have symptoms of coronavirus, use the NHS 111 coronavirus service to find out what to do. Source: NHS England on 23 March 2020

On 26 March, Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said the World Health Organization’s advice to “test, test, test” was an unnecessary measure to curb the spread of coronavirus in Britain.

“We need to realise that the clue with the WHO is in its title – it’s a World Health Organization,” she explained during a Downing Street press briefing. “And it is addressing all countries across the world, with entirely different health infrastructures … We have an extremely well-developed public health system in this country.”

The government’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic has so far focused on using physical distancing measures to delay its spread and increasing NHS capacity. The government aims to reach 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said on Monday that testing across the UK was “heading in the right direction”, and that nearly 43,000 NHS staff and their families had been tested.

However, recent graphs from PHE show the UK’s pandemic trajectory is following a similar course to that of Italy, the second-worst hit country in the world in terms of coronavirus-related deaths.

When asked why Germany – which in the week ending 4 April was carrying out an average of 116,655 swab tests a day – had been able to test so many people and keep deaths relatively low, Vallance said testing was “an incredibly important part of how we need to manage this going forward”.

However, he added, there were “all sorts of reasons” why Germany had had only 3,194 deaths at that time, compared with 11,329 in UK hospitals, cautioning that its high volume of testing should not be automatically linked with the low death toll.

In South Korea, officials deployed a “test, trace, isolate” programme to contain the spread of the virus, involving testing tens of thousands of people a day, while placing the sick and those they had come into contact with into strict quarantine.

The country – which has not imposed a lockdown on citizens – has so far reported 222 deaths.

PHE’s chief executive, Duncan Selbie, said: “PHE has moved heaven and earth to develop an accurate test, ensuring that every hospital patient that needs one has been tested. We and our NHS colleagues have delivered our promise of 10,000 tests a day on time and are on track for 750,000 tests per month by the end of April.

“The health secretary has publicly acknowledged and thanked PHE for our remarkable science and for working around the clock to keep people safe.”