U.K. has made it compulsory for all the people to get tested for COVID-19 twice a week from this Friday
The Government of United Kingdom (U.K.) has made it compulsory for all the people to get tested for Coronavirus (COVID-19) twice a week starting from Friday, i.e., April 9, 2021.
The rapid testing or lateral flow test will deliver results in 30 minutes and will be available free of cost at testing sites, pharmacies, community testing sites operated by local authorities, existing workplace testing programmes and through the post. Those with no symptoms are also required to undergo this test twice a week.
The move comes ahead of next stage of easing down of lockdown restrictions which is scheduled to come into effect from April, 12, 2021. The Prime Minister of U.K. – Boris Johnson is expected to allow opening of non-essential shops, pubs and restaurants.
Later, the prime minister will hold a Downing Street briefing, where he is expected to confirm countries will be graded under a traffic light system when international leisure travel resumes.
Speaking on the occasion, Boris Johnson said, “As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine programme and with our road map cautiously easing restrictions under way, regular rapid testing is even more important to make sure those efforts are not wasted.”
Taking it to twitter, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care – Matt Hancock tweeted,
Everyone will be able to take a free rapid coronavirus test twice a week from the 9th April.
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) April 5, 2021
Reclaiming our lost freedoms & getting back to normal hinges on us all getting tested regularly.https://t.co/4i53gOmykA
The people who test positive will be required to self-isolated along with their immediate family. They can then order a second PCR test, typically used for symptomatic cases, which will be sent off to a laboratory for analysis. If the second test comes negative, their quarantine period will be over.
Such rapid tests are presently being offered to school children and their families and those who have to leave home for work. The schools testing programme, combined with the wider use of workplace testing, has led to a jump in the number of lateral flow tests carried out in England. There were about 250,000 rapid tests a day taken in mid-February 2021. This reached more than a million a day by the end of March 2021. More than, 100,000 businesses in England have registered their interest to provide rapid tests to their employees.
The Government hopes rapid testing will find cases that would not otherwise be discovered, helping to break chains of transmission and suppress the spread of variants or mutations. Every 1 out of 3 person who tests positive for COVID-19 has no symptoms of the virus. These rapid tests will help in finding such cases. However, there have been concerns that it may add to the State’s expenditure.
