THE percentage of people getting their Covid-19 test result back within 24 hours is now at its worst rate in three months.

In the week ending December 23, just 16.9 per cent of people taking an 'in-person' test - at a testing site or mobile testing unit - got their results within 24 hours.

This is a drop from 34.1 per cent in the previous week and is the lowest percentage since the week to October 14.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in June that the results of all in-person tests would be back within 24 hours by the end of that month, a pledge he has so far failed to meet.

He told MPS on June 3 that “all tests turned around within 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that”.

A total of 232,169 people tested positive for Covid-19 in England at least once in the week to December 23, according to the latest Test and Trace figures.

This is up 33 per cent on the previous week and is the highest weekly total since Test and Trace began in May.

Of the 211,914 people transferred to the Test and Trace system in the week to December 23, 85.8 per cent were reached and asked to provide details of recent close contacts.

This is down from 88.6 per cent in the previous week and is the lowest percentage since the week to October 28.

Some 12.8 per cent of people transferred to Test and Trace in the week to December 23 were not reached while a further 1.3 per cent did not provide any communication details.