NICOLA Sturgeon has hit back at a claim she is "playing politics" over concerns over coronavirus testing problems.

The First Minister said earlier today that UK Health Secretary Hancock wanted to restrict the number of people who could get a coronavirus test in Scotland because of a UK-wide backlog.

The First Minister said the UK's Health Secretary proposed limiting the number of slots available for testing in Scottish mobile and regional test centres.

But his Scottish counterpart Jeane Freeman "managed to avoid that happening" during negotiations over the weekend, Sturgeon said.

She explained that the UK Government processes the majority of Covid-19 tests in Scotland but a UK-wide "demand issue" has been causing delays for patients waiting to receive their results.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says Matt Hancock tried to limit Scotland's coronavirus testing

BBC journalist Hugh Pym quoted a Westminster source as saying: "It is disappointing that the First Minister has decided to play politics with the pandemic - we have been working with Scottish Government."

But Sturgeon denied the claim, saying: "Wanting to sort out a testing backlog is not playing politics - it’s about making sure we’re fighting the virus as effectively as possible, and that’s in interests of all of us. And to that end, I’m actually just off a call with Matt Hancock that I hope will help resolve issues."

Speaking at the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing, Sturgeon said: "We were concerned over the weekend that one of the ways the UK Government was trying to deal with the backlog was to restrict access to testing, and the Health Secretary managed to avoid that happening in Scotland."

Sturgeon said she has "serious concern" about the testing backlog and has urged Hancock to share the "full scale and nature of issues they are facing" so her government could help to try and fix the problems.

he continued: "There was a proposal over the weekend that the available slots at mobile testing units and regional testing centres in Scotland would be reduced and the Health Secretary managed to avoid that happening so that we retained full capacity for Scotland.

"We have no indication at the moment that there is any significant issue in Scotland with people accessing testing slots."

Sturgeon added: "The issue that we do appear to be suffering some impacts from - and again it's a UK-wide issue - is a backlog in tests being processed that is then leading to a longer turnaround time."

Freeman said she had "constructive conversations" with Hancock and her Welsh counterpart Vaughan Gething about the backlog, which she said was being caused by rising demand and "an issue with the speed and capacity of processing the tests".