Test & trace for Covid really is failing miserably. I spent four days trying to book a test online. There's a mobile test centre that comes to Croydon twice a week. Croydon has a population of 385k. Guy at the test centre just told me they have 60 people booked in today...

He said they have no more tests & new regulations mean they can't test anyone else unless they bring a letter from a GP. He said 30 people have been turned away already today. So for a borough of 385,000 we get 120 people a week tested. What a mess.

I'm over the worst of the symptoms now & if I lived alone I'd just do my isolation & not worry. But I live with my parents who are 70+. One has underlying health conditions & is disabled & the other is their carer. So they're worried in case I've exposed them to Covid.

I'm frustrated by seeing all these government adverts for getting Covid tests when there's none available anywhere. It's been more than 6 months, they've had plenty of time to sort this out but they've screwed up over & over.

I finally managed to order a home test kit yesterday after several days of trying, but it wasn't dispatched by Amazon Logistics until 11:22am today & I needed to get it in the post by midday for it to be collected, so if it does arrive then I won't be able to use it until Monday

Monday will be day 6 since the symptoms started, possibly too late for a postal test anyway, but I have no other option. I'd be amazed if the test comes back positive at that point. This post describes the awful process: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/07/03/taking-a-covid-19-test-at-home-the-fragile-base-on-which-track-and-trace-is-built/