The Government said at the beginning of April it wanted to be testing 100,000 people a day for coronavirus.
The capacity today is just 40,000 tests a day.
But the reality is that yesterday only 18,000 tests were carried out.
Social Care Minister Helen Whately told the Today programme: "It clearly is really troubling when strategy is to increase testing capacity and get as much testing happening as possible.
"We have had a huge increase - up to now we've had a capacity of 40,000 tests a day, but in practice yesterday we did about 18,000."
Asked how the Government is addressing the shortfall, she said: "One thing we're looking at is access to tests.
"In social care, they've offered drive through centres but not everybody has access to a car.
"So we have started using mobile testing units, which have worked well so far so we'll be doing more of that.
"And home testing kits - you get a home testing kit delivered to your home."
See more here:
Social distancing could be in place for up to a year, says chief medical officer - Telegraph.co.uk