PEOPLE should stop their "endless carping" about a lack of Covid-19 tests, a senior minister has said, as Labour warned that a second spike is likely.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed the "phenomenal success" of England's testing system should be celebrated.
But after the UK Government announced restrictions in north-east England, shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth warned: "It's become not so much test and trace, more like trace a test."
Speaking in the Commons, Labour frontbencher Valerie Vaz questioned why the head of the UK Government's coronavirus Test and Trace programme, Dido Harding, has not spoken in public since August.
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The shadow Commons leader added: "The number of tests returned within 24 hours has fallen from 68% to 8% - it seems to be all talk, talk and no test, test."
Rees-Mogg replied: "We all have an obligation to try and stop the dangerous disease spreading, but the issue of testing is one where we have gone from a disease that nobody knew about a few months ago to one where nearly a quarter of a million people a day can be tested.
"And the Prime Minister is expecting that to go up to half a million people a day by the end of October.
"And instead of this endless carping, saying it is difficult to get them, we should actually celebrate the phenomenal success of the British nation in getting up to a quarter of a million tests of a disease that nobody knew about until earlier in the year."
Senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper raised the case of a constituent who works in the NHS, who was unable to get a test for her husband.
The Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP said: "She's since developed symptoms herself. Neither of them has been tested, neither of them is therefore in the tracing system so there's no follow-up to prevent other people getting the virus as well.
"This isn't just chaotic, it is dangerous.
"The Government knew there would be a huge increase in demand for testing when the schools went back and when he was encouraging people to go back to work, yet since mid-July testing capacity has only gone up by 10% and the number of cases has gone up by 400%."
Hancock replied: "We are increasing that capacity and I said it's at record levels.
"When it comes to her constituents, firstly those who work in the NHS are eligible to get tests through the NHS pillar one system, but all those who have symptoms of coronavirus and think they may have symptoms of coronavirus, it's very important that they self-isolate."
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