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Twice weekly rapid testing to be available across England
The government has announced that everyone in England will be able to access free, regular, rapid coronavirus testing from 9 April.
Rapid testing has so far been available to those most at risk and people who need to leave home for work, including frontline NHS workers, care home staff and residents, and schoolchildren and their families.
Now rapid testing will be offered to everyone, with people encouraged to take regular tests to help prevent outbreaks and reclaim a more normal way of life. It means that anyone will be able to access free, rapid lateral flow tests for themselves and their families to use twice a week, in line with clinical guidance.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Massive efforts have been made by the British public to stop the spread of the virus. As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine programme and with our roadmap to cautiously easing restrictions underway, regular rapid testing is even more important to make sure those efforts are not wasted. That’s why we’re now rolling out free rapid tests to everyone across England – helping us to stop outbreaks in their tracks, so we can get back to seeing the people we love and doing the things we enjoy.”
Over 100,000 businesses in England have registered their interest to provide rapid tests to their employees, and the offer of free testing is being expanded to companies with over 10 workers where on-site testing is impossible.
The expanded regular testing offer for people without symptoms will be delivered through: a home ordering service, which allows people to order lateral flow tests online to be delivered to their home; workplace testing programmes, on-site or at home; community testing, offered by all local authorities; collection at a local PCR test site during specific test collection time windows; and testing on-site at schools and colleges.
A new ‘Pharmacy Collect’ service is also launching which will provide an additional route to regular testing. People aged over 18 without symptoms will be able to visit a participating local pharmacy and collect a box of seven rapid tests to use twice a week at home.
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