The government is likely to meet or “come close” to its target of 100,000 daily UK coronavirus tests, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government would achieve the aim by the end of April – which was Thursday – and those figures are expected later.
Just over 81,000 tests across the UK took place on Wednesday, but ministers said there was capacity for more.
It comes as the PM said the UK was now “past the peak” of the outbreak.
Mr Jenrick told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t have the figures yet, they’ll be published later today… but it looks like we’ll either meet the target or come close.”
He added the target was “just a stepping stone” and that the foundations were in place for a strong national testing network.
It comes after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC One’s Question Time on Thursday evening that the government was “likely to get very close to or meet” its target.
The total number of people who have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in UK hospitals and the wider community is now 26,771, the latest figures show, a rise of 674 on the previous day.
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Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said testing needed to be linked with contact tracing, adding that he hoped this would form “an important part” of the government’s exit strategy from the lockdown.
Prof Devi Sridhar, an expert in global public health from the University of Edinburgh, said testing needed to be used as part of a contact tracing strategy to identify people who had been infected and then track down anyone they had been recently been in contact with.
Anyone who tests positive for the virus can then be told to self-isolate, she added.
Prof Sridhar, who is among those advising the Scottish government on its response to the pandemic, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Testing on its own is useful but not really the full package.”
