At best a lot of this suggests very poor communication. At worst it suggests arrogance and incompetence.
Test, test, test — how UK is failing in fight against coronavirus
The government faces fresh pressure over its repeated promises to “ramp up” coronavirus testing as it emerged that its latest drive to help NHS workers will initially involve only 800 frontline staff.
Michael Gove, minister for the Cabinet Office, announced the plan on Friday to prioritise antigen testing for health workers, which would allow healthy staff who have been in contact with an infected person to return to work. But health officials said yesterday that it could be several weeks before testing can begin. The NHS has more than 1m staff.
The disclosure comes amid scrutiny of five coronavirus policy pledges made by Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, to improve the availability of antigen and antibody tests, protective equipment for staff, ventilators and hospital beds.
....
On March 11 the government said it would be increasing testing to 10,000 a day. On March 19 the prime minister vowed that would rise to 25,000 a day and then 250,000 a day.
Despite the promises, the average daily testing number last week remained at about 5,000. On Friday the test total was 8,911. This was still short of 10,000, two weeks after ministers had promised to hit the target.
...
Germany has increased its virus testing capacity to 500,000 a week, which is more than 10 times that of the UK. Anyone with symptoms can get tested, with most covered by the health insurance system and Germany’s large number of private laboratories.
Even in America, where President Donald Trump’s response to the crisis has come under fire, there are 30,000 tests being done every day.
In Britain, testing is done by 12 state-owned laboratories s run by Public Health England and other public health agencies and about 40 run by the NHS.
...
Hancock said he had ordered 3.5m such tests — with more to come. “We are ramping up,” he said, adding that the antibody tests would become available “very soon”.
It emerged this weekend that it could be May before the antibody tests are available. Experts said the tests had not yet been proven to work and even if they were validated it could be six weeks before they go on sale.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/test-test-test-how-uk-is-failing-in-fight-against-coronavirus-92fdpg70w