Welsh Government said we would be on 5.000 tests a day. Its actually 1,300

and that's capacity not tests 

There seems to be some confusion on ho exactly to blame for the news that the Welsh Government has fallen woefully short of the coronavirus testing target it had hoped to reach by now.

The Wasting Mule reports  that.

On Friday, April 3, First Minister Mark Drakeford said there would be 5,000 tests a day by the middle of the month and 9,000 a day by the end of the month.

Almost two weeks on and there were only 770 tests carried out in Wales on Easter Monday - well short of the 5,000 promised.
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething blamed the shortfall on a lack of referrals for frontline workers to have tests, but admitted the daily capacity was 1,300 a day.
Mr Gething said he was frustrated the “maximum capacity” for testing was not being used.
Speaking at press conference today (Tuesday), he said: "We need to do much more to maximise the capacity that exists. It is really frustrating for me that we haven't maximised that capacity.
"We both need to increase our capacity and make use of it. It is both, not one or the other."

So is he blaming Local Authorities.

 He pointed to the fact that 10 local authorities had not referred their social care workers for tests."Every part of the system needs to refer their staff to make sure the capacity is used," Mr Gething said.
"I know for example that 12 local authorities have referred in their social care workers to have tests. But actually every local authority can make use of that and we have the capacity to test over 100 social care workers each day. That means those referrals need to be made.
"My frustration is, I am sure, borne out and multiplied by frontline staff who are waiting and self-isolating at home who think if they had a test they would understand they are Covid free and return to work."
He added they would start expanding the range of people who could be referred for tests.
He said: "The challenge is making sure enough referrals are made because the drive in centres we are making are for frontline workers by appointment.

"We think we will be able to expand that to a broader group of workers whether that be police, prisons, firefighter or members of armed forces who are been redeployed to combat the national Covid-19 effort."

 After adding having spare capacity "just isn't acceptable", Mr Gething was quizzed on why capacity was just over 20% of where the Welsh Government hoped it would be by now.He said that "the current capacity a day is 1,300" and that they would be announcing about increases "later this week"

 So is it a lack of referrals or capacity or both?
One wonder why local authorities are not making referrals because they are aware of lack of capacity , or nearby test centers 

It's time the Welsh Government stopped shifting the blame and own up to its failures , whilst we should all recognise that they are facing difficult choices and they are also hampered by the lockdown themselves in administrating  their response , it is clear that they have failed to meet their quite low targets.

When this over there must be an inquiry in both the Westminster Government  and  Welsh Labour Government response to this pandemic and it must be open and rigorous.