However, throughout the pandemic, our Committees have taken a great interest in what might be learned and applied from how other countries tackled the virus. In March 2020, the World Health Organisation recommended that nations “plan for surge capacity by establishing decentralized testing capacity in sub-national laboratories”.252 Dr Seon Kui Erica Lee, of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Science and Technology Committee in April 2020 that testing capacity in the Republic of Korea had expanded rapidly because of lessons learned from the 2015 MERS outbreak.253 Dr 245 GOV.UK, SAGE 1, 22 January 2020 246 HC oral statement, 23 January 2020, Vol 670 [Commons Chamber] 247 HC oral questions, 20 May 2020, Vol 676 [Commons Chamber] 248 GOV.UK, SAGE 2, 28 January 2020 249 See, for example: oral evidence taken before the Health and Social Care Committee on 19 May 2020, HC (2019– 21) 36 and oral evidence taken before the Science and Technology Committee on 16 April 2020, HC (2019–21) 136 250 Department of Health and Social Care, via Twitter, 11 March 2020 251 Q343 252 World Health Organisation, ‘Laboratory testing strategy recommendations for COVID-19: interim guidance: 23 March 2020’, accessed 17 September 2021 253 Oral evidence taken before the Science and Technology Committee on 8 April 2020, HC (2019–21) 136, Q145 62 Coronavirus: lessons learned to date Max Roser also explained to us that “by mid-March [2020], Germany was testing 50,000 people per day”, whilst the UK was “very late” and reached the same capacity one and a half months later.254