The UK government promised in mid-March to rapidly increase the number of tests being carried out - sounds good doesn't it - but when you look at the actual promise, they said they wanted to achieve 25,000 tests per day by mid-April.
Well, mid-April was a few days ago and they haven't achieved 25,000 tests per day on ANY day yet. Yesterday they managed 21,328.
Meanwhile Germany is conducting well over 50,000 tests per day, and at points has managed over 100,000 tests per day.
source
The UK government initially claimed in early March that rather than attempt to contain the virus, they would adopt a herd immunity strategy. This was completely at odds from advice from the World Health Organisation which stated that containment and testing were absolutely vital. A week later, the UK government discovered that their strategy was utterly flawed, because the science it was based on was using infection rates that were much lower; at which point the UK government did implement containment measures. Even so, we were one of the last countries in Europe to lock down, and even then it's been done in a half-hearted way, i.e. "Stay home! But remember to go out to work! And for exercise!".
Your experience may be different if you are in Scotland, as per your profile. I have relatives in Scotland who believe, as it seems you do, that things are being handled well. From the perspective of a southerner, I could not disagree more.
[automerge]1587133911[/automerge]
My brother experienced the same thing. He was extremely unwell for over a fortnight, with all the symptoms. The NHS website and phone line offered nothing, except advising him to stay home. No testing, no contact tracing, nothing.
Meanwhile, our niece in Ireland asked for a test, this was mailed to her, and she got the results in 72 hours.
The UK is doing appallingly, by comparison to other countries in Europe. With perhaps the exception of Sweden.