The UK government apologised after a new booking website for coronavirus tests ran out of supply within minutes of opening.

The web portal launched on April 24 as part of the government’s plan for a massive expansion of the numbers of people who are tested for Covid-19, following weeks of criticism over ministers’ response to the crisis.

But the 5,000 home testing kits that were available on the first day of the programme were snapped up within two minutes, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, told reporters on a conference call on April 24. The portal closed for applications once another 15,000 testing slots available at drive-through centres had been allocated, he said.

"The system is working, people are booking slots and they are now going to be able to do tests,” Slack said. In a tweet, the health department apologised "for any inconvenience” and promised more tests will be available tomorrow.

The surge in online applications shows the scale of the government’s challenge in meeting the demand for virus tests, after weeks of pressure to expand its testing regime. Officials gave up on testing and tracing confirmed cases in the community on March 12 to focus on confirming the infection in hospital patients. Ministers faced growing calls to reverse that decision and have been trying to make up lost ground ever since.

The government is now scrambling to meet a pledge made at the beginning of April to increase testing tenfold to 100,000 a day. While capacity is now up to 51,000, the number of tests carried out have fallen well short of that, with the most recent daily data showing fewer than 24,000 done on April 22.

To plug the gap, Health Secretary Matt Hancock expanded eligibility for the tests to 10 million key workers across the country and their families. He also said the government is preparing a mass program to track and trace coronavirus cases, which will be required to control the outbreak and prevent a second wave of infections when a nationwide lockdown is relaxed.

Hancock said authorities are recruiting 18,000 people to help operate the program, which he expects to be running within "weeks”.

Much will depend on testing capacity keeping up with demand. On Friday, Slack indicated no rigorous checks are being carried out to assess whether applicants really are key workers.

"We would expect the public to respond in good faith,” he said.

 - Bloomberg