LONDON: Britain decided to end mass testing and contact tracing of those with or suspected of having COVID-19 in March because a surge in new cases at that time would have been beyond the system's capacity, government advisers said on Friday (May 22).

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for scaling back testing and tracing in March, only to ramp up the system in recent weeks to try to ease out of a lockdown to tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has all but shut down the economy.