Testing requirements for COVID-19 relaxed
People experiencing COVID-19 symptoms will no longer be told to take a test from Friday and instead should isolate at home until the symptoms end, the Government has announced.
Free COVID-19 tests will continue to be available to help protect specific groups once free testing for the general public ends on 1 April.
The end to free universal testing is seeing test centres across the country being decommissioned, with both remaining test centres at The Haringey Irish Centre in N17 and Stamford Hill Primary School in N15 closing at 6pm this evening.
People at risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and eligible for treatments, will continue to get free tests to use if they develop symptoms, along with NHS and adult social care staff and those in other high-risk settings.
Although COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations have risen in recent weeks, over 55% of those in hospital that have tested positive are not there with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis.
The success of the vaccination programme and access to antivirals, alongside natural immunity and increased scientific and public understanding about how to manage risk, has resulted in the population now having much stronger protection against COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. This is enabling the country to begin to manage the virus like other respiratory infections.
- From 1 April, updated guidance will advise people with symptoms of a respiratory infection, including COVID-19, and a high temperature or who feel unwell, to try stay at home and avoid contact with other people, until they feel well enough to resume normal activities and they no longer have a high temperature.
- From 1 April, anyone with a positive COVID-19 test result will be advised to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days, which is when they are most infectious.
- Advice will be provided for individuals who need to leave their home when they have symptoms or have tested positive, including avoiding close contact with people with a weakened immune system, wearing a face-covering and avoiding crowded places.
- Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people, where they can. They can go back to school, college or childcare when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough to attend.
Vaccines remain everyone’s best defence against current and future variants of COVID-19 and spring boosters are being offered to the elderly, care home residents and the most vulnerable. This is in addition to the evergreen offer of 1st, 2nd and booster doses available to all eligible groups.
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