The latest Covid testing rules explained

Follow-up PCR tests to confirm Covid-19 infections in asymptomatic people are being axed in a bid to shorten isolation periods and ease nationwide staffing shortages.

The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed that from 11 January, PCRs will no longer be required for anyone in England who gets a positive on a lateral flow test but has no symptoms – “said to be around 40% of those with the virus”, according to The Mirror.

These people “will still have to isolate for at least seven days, but only from the date of their positive lateral flow test”, the paper reported.

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What are the current rules on testing and self-isolation?

Current NHS guidance for England says that people who test positive on a lateral flow test should take a PCR test and then self-isolate for a maximum of ten days if confirmed to have Covid.

PCR tests are also advised for anyone who:

• has any of the three main symptoms of Covid-19: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste
• has recorded a void LFT
• is unvaccinated and has come into close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid. But fully vaccinated adults only need to carry out daily LFTs for seven days if a close contact has tested positive.

Last month, the government reduced the isolation period from ten days to seven days for people who test negative in two lateral flow tests taken 24 hours apart on days six and seven and who do not have symptoms or a high temperature.

The reduced isolation period only applies in England. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the isolation period remains ten days.

What has changed?

Asymptomatic people will no longer have to book a follow–up PCR test under the rule change, which applies from 11 January in England and from tomorrow in Wales and Scotland.

These people will still be required to isolate for at least seven days – until they have produced two negative LFTs on days six and seven – but only from the date of their initial positive LFT test.

The change is intended to further cut isolation times for asymptomatic people, who currently have to start their isolation period from the day that they get a positive PCR result.

People with Covid symptoms will still be required to take a PCR test, regardless of whether they have taken a lateral flow test.

Ministers believe scrapping the requirement for a follow-up PCR will “help ease the burden of the current staff shortages crippling the UK”, said the i news site. The NHS, schools and refuse collection services have been “plagued by high numbers of staff absences” fuelled by the spread of the highly contagious Omicron strain and self-isolation rules.

The Telegraph said that “fears are growing that staff absences have become as big a problem as Covid itself, with bin collections delayed, trains cancelled and 17 hospitals in Greater Manchester announcing on Tuesday that they would be suspending some non-urgent surgery, with 15% of staff off sick”.

Health minister Gillian Keegan told Sky News today that “around a million people” in the UK were currently self-isolating.

The latest rule changes are expected to be “only temporary”, according to The Mirror, which reported that follow-up PCR tests were expected to be reintroduced when the “worst of the Omicron wave passes”.

“PCR tests will be restored when prevalence dips back to or below around 1%,” said the paper, which added that current levels are “thought to be 4% or more”.