<p>An influential group of British lawmakers is accusing the government of failing to conduct enough tests for the new coronavirus, saying the lapse helped COVID-19 cut a deadly swath through the country's nursing homes.</p>.<p>The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee says that “testing capacity has been inadequate for most of the pandemic so far.”</p>.<p>In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, committee chairman Greg Clark said Britain's testing capacity “drove strategy, rather than strategy driving capacity.”</p>.<p>The UK authorities initially sought to trace and test everyone who had been in contact with people infected with the coronavirus. But they abandoned that strategy in mid-March as the number of infections overwhelmed the country's limited testing capacity.</p>.<p>Clark, a lawmaker from the governing Conservatives, said that “pivotal” decision meant that nursing home residents and staff were not tested “at a time when the spread of the virus was at its most rampant.” Thousands of nursing home residents have died with COVID-19.</p>.<p>The country's testing capacity has now been scaled up to more than 100,000 tests a day, and the government plans to reintroduce a “test, track and trace” policy as part of plans to control the virus and ease the nationwide lockdown.</p>.<p>But the committee also said that “it is not clear that the lessons of the delays to testing have been learned.”</p>
<p>An influential group of British lawmakers is accusing the government of failing to conduct enough tests for the new coronavirus, saying the lapse helped COVID-19 cut a deadly swath through the country's nursing homes.</p>.<p>The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee says that “testing capacity has been inadequate for most of the pandemic so far.”</p>.<p>In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, committee chairman Greg Clark said Britain's testing capacity “drove strategy, rather than strategy driving capacity.”</p>.<p>The UK authorities initially sought to trace and test everyone who had been in contact with people infected with the coronavirus. But they abandoned that strategy in mid-March as the number of infections overwhelmed the country's limited testing capacity.</p>.<p>Clark, a lawmaker from the governing Conservatives, said that “pivotal” decision meant that nursing home residents and staff were not tested “at a time when the spread of the virus was at its most rampant.” Thousands of nursing home residents have died with COVID-19.</p>.<p>The country's testing capacity has now been scaled up to more than 100,000 tests a day, and the government plans to reintroduce a “test, track and trace” policy as part of plans to control the virus and ease the nationwide lockdown.</p>.<p>But the committee also said that “it is not clear that the lessons of the delays to testing have been learned.”</p>