British foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Wednesday the government was confident it would meet its target of carrying out 100,000 tests a day for the coronavirus by the end of the month.
Official figures on Tuesday showed 18,206 tests had been carried out the previous day.
"I do think it is important to have a target and to drive towards a target. We are making good progress, we are confident we will meet it," Raab, who is standing in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from COVID-19, told parliament.
"It is about capacity, it is about distribution, we'll only be able to manage to hit that target if all of us come together to deliver on it," he added.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
