THE number of daily coronavirus tests fell yesterday below the 100,000 target that the government claimed to have hit by the end of last month.

Last week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed that the pledge to carry out 100,000 tests per day by the end of April had been reached. He announced that 122,347 tests were carried out last Thursday.

But yesterday, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told the daily Downing Street press conference that there had been 76,496 tests in the previous 24 hours.