LABOUR criticised the Department of Health for failing to prepare for the high demand of free Covid-19 tests after a new webpage offering them to key workers “crashed” within minutes today.

All essential staff in England – including NHS and social care workers, police officers, teachers, social workers, local authority staff, undertakers and supermarket and food production workers – are eligible for the tests.

Key workers can register on the gov.uk website for drive-through centre appointments or home test kits for their household – although the latter are in limited supply.

Downing Street said that 5,000 home testing kits were ordered in the first two minutes of the website going live, and about 15,000 drive-through centre tests were booked.

The part of the gov.uk website set up for the scheme was not accepting new applications by mid-morning after capacity ran out.

The website said: “Coronavirus test: applications closed. You can’t currently register for a Covid-19 test. Please check back here later.”

The government said that the 1,000 kits available per day will be increased to 18,000 per day by the end of next week.

The Department of Health apologised for “any inconvenience,” adding: “We are continuing to rapidly increase availability. More tests will be available tomorrow.”

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth criticised the government for not “properly preparing a testing strategy.”

He said: “The fact the website crashed in minutes reveals the extent of the demand that ministers should have prepared for.

“Questions will need answering as to why this happened, what mechanisms are in place to ensure everyone who needs a test gets one quickly and whether a workable tracing strategy is being prepared.”

The expansion of free testing for key workers was announced on Thursday by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, as part of an effort to meet his target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month – in less than a week’s time.

On Wednesday, 23,560 coronavirus tests were carried out in a 24-hour period despite there being capacity for more than 40,000.

Mr Hancock said today that capacity has increased to 51,000 per day, which he said will also be fulfilled by the launch of mobile testing units at care homes, police stations and prisons.

The government’s contact tracing operation, scheduled to be functioning in a “matter of weeks,” will work better when the number of infections is pushed right down, he added.