A major testing programme to help suppress coronavirus and offer
communities in Tier 3 alert areas a direct route out of the
toughest restrictions will today be announced by the Prime
Minister.
Leaders in local authorities that fall into the ‘very high’ alert
category will be able to draw on the support of NHS Test and
Trace and the Armed Forces to help the delivery of extensive
community testing, including targeting highest risk areas under
the Government’s new Covid Winter Plan.
This follows the success of whole community testing in Liverpool
using rapid lateral flow tests, which produce test results within
30 minutes. The Liverpool programme has seen over 200,000 people
being tested and, alongside economic and social restrictions, has
contributed to a substantial fall in Covid cases in that
area.
Meanwhile, repeat testing will also be rapidly extended to
prevent close contacts of those testing positive from having to
isolate. Contacts of those who test positive will be offered the
opportunity to be tested every day for a week and they will not
need to isolate unless they test positive.
This repeated testing of contacts instead of isolation will be
trialled in Liverpool from next week, if the results are
promising then it will be extended across the NHS and care homes
in December, before being rolled out to everyone from
January.
The measures in the Covid Winter Plan - which are backed by an
additional £7bn, taking the overall funding provided for test and
trace this year to £22bn - will also mean every care home
resident will be able to see two visitors twice a week by the end
of this year.
Testing to enable indoor visits to care home residents is being
piloted in 20 care homes ahead a national rollout next month.
This will enable each care home resident in the country to have
up to two visitors who can be tested twice a week. And crucially,
visitors will be able to have physical contact, such as a hug or
holding hands, with their loved ones.
Care workers looking after people in their own homes will also
start to be offered weekly tests from today (Monday).
Prime Minister is expected to say:
“The selflessness of people in following the rules
is making a difference. The virus is not spreading nearly as
quickly as it would if we were not washing our hands, maintaining
social distance, wearing masks and so on. And in England, where
nationwide measures came into effect at the start of this month,
the increase in new cases is flattening off.
“But we are not out of the woods yet. The virus is still present
in communities across the country, and remains both far more
infectious and far more deadly than seasonal flu.
“But with expansion in testing and vaccines edging closer to
deployment, the regional tiered system will help get the virus
back under control and keep it there.”
The major testing programme will draw on the use of tens of
millions of tests in the coming weeks and months and form part of
a package of measures that confirm the end of national
restrictions and a return to regional tiers.
Workers in food manufacturing, staff in prisons, and those
delivering and administering Covid vaccines are also set to be
offered weekly testing from December.
Testing capacity has already increased from 100,000 a
day at the end of April to 500,000 by the end of October, with
plans to go even further by the end of the year.
This capacity is available across the UK, and over 37
million tests have been conducted - more per head than any other
comparable European country.
In parallel, the Government has opened over 680 test
sites, reducing the average distance travelled for a test to just
2.6 miles.
So far, testing has focused on those with symptoms
and protecting those most at risk. Whilst those efforts will
continue, the use of testing will be widened to identify those
without symptoms who can infect people unknowingly.
Twice-weekly asymptomatic testing has already begun for NHS
staff, and ministers have committed to increasing the frequency
of testing for all care workers and residents from December. This
will see staff tested twice-weekly rather than weekly, and
residents weekly rather than monthly.
Every university in England has also been offered
access to mass asymptomatic testing to help ensure students can
travel home safely for Christmas.
