End of free lateral flow tests as country told to live with Covid
New plan could save billions as ministers expect six more years of virus
Handing out lateral flow tests free of charge is regarded as unsustainable and, given high levels of vaccination, unnecessary
TOLGA AKMEN/AFP /GETTY IMAGES
Free lateral flow tests face the axe under plans for living with Covid which Boris Johnson will announce within weeks.
More than £6 billion of public money has been spent on mass testing using the devices.
The new system could mean free tests being provided only in high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools, and to people with symptoms. Contact tracing by NHS Test and Trace is also likely to be scaled back.
A senior Whitehall source said: “I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody for evermore. It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it.....
No comments:
Post a Comment