COVID testing to be majorly reduced in England

As part of the living with Covid-19 approach testing is due to be scaled back even further in England from next month.

Yesterday the UK government announced that as of April, Covid-19 testing will continue to be reduced in a bid to help the country live with the virus. The changes have been announced over a year after the nation began the transition to living with COVID.

Under the new guidelines, which can be found in full here, state that most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes will no longer be given swab tests, even if they have symptoms.

However, there will be exception for some staff who work with severely immunocompromised patients or if there is an outbreak on a ward or in a hospice or prison, for example.

In addition to frequent testing coming to an end, the long-running Office for National Statistics Covid-19 infection survey that estimated how many people in the community had the virus each week – based on nose and throat swabs from volunteers – has already come to an end.

The final pieces of data that were published suggested 1.7 million people had the virus in the week ending 13^th March which was a 14% rise from the previous week. But, the UK Health Security Agency says that due to the success of the vaccination programme, testing in England can now become more like the approach used for common respiratory infections such as the flu.

The testing that is ending includes:

• Routine asymptomatic testing for staff and patients being admitted to all health and social-care settings, including hospitals and care homes
• Routine asymptomatic testing of staff and residents in care settings
• Routine asymptomatic testing in prisons, places of detention and homelessness, refuge and asylum settings
• Polymerase chain-reaction (PCR) testing outside NHS settings

Lateral-flow tests will continue for:

• People in the community and residents in care or other high-risk settings who have symptoms and are eligible for Covid-19 treatment, to enable rapid access to these drugs
• Some NHS staff who have symptoms and work on wards with severely immunosuppressed patients
• Hospice staff with symptoms
• All patients being discharged from hospitals into care settings
• Outbreak testing in the NHS, hospices, prisons, places of detention and care, homelessness, refuge and asylum settings
• Some hospital patients with symptoms, where needed to inform decisions such as ward transfers

UKHSA Chief Executive, Dr Dame Jenny Harries said: ‘Fewer people now experience severe illness due to Covid-19 – due to vaccinations, infection-related immunity and treatments for those who need them – and the risk of hospitalisation has decreased overall.

‘This means we are now able to further bring our testing programmes in line with management of other viral infections whilst still maintaining focus on those at highest risk, to protect them from the virus.

‘Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses haven’t gone away – and simple actions like washing your hands and staying at home and avoiding vulnerable people when unwell can make a big difference.

‘For those at highest risk of severe illness, the spring booster programme also provides an opportunity to keep immunity topped up.’

Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, has also commented on the news. He said: ‘Testing was crucial to our response during the height of the pandemic – and our successful vaccination programme has protected the most vulnerable, saved thousands of lives and has helped us all to live with Covid-19.

‘Thankfully, we are now able to scale back our testing programme while remaining committed to ensuring those at highest risk and more prone to severe illness get the protection they need.’

Image: Joshua Lawrence and Medakit Ltd