UK minister: not all chemicals needed for coronavirus test have been available

Not all of the chemicals needed to produce coronavirus tests have always been available in great enough quantities in Britain, housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Wednesday. Jenrick was asked on BBC television about an apparent discrepancy between comments from senior minister Michael Gove that there was a problem sourcing chemicals for testing kits and a statement from the chemicals industry saying there was supply of what is needed being delivered to the health service.

"The chemicals industry have rightly said that in the UK we produce a number of the ingredients to produce the tests that we need," Jenrick responded. "But to produce a reliable test you need to have a range of ingredients and not all of them, as I understand it, have always been available in the UK in the quantities that we need."

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