"Since last week, patients presenting to 100 participating GP practices with severe respiratory infections, but who do not display Covid-19 symptoms, are being tested on an opportunistic basis.
When it launched the surveillance system, PHE said there was 'no evidence' that the virus was 'circulating in the community' in England. However, since then five patients who had not travelled from coronavirus-affected countries, or had known contact with patients who had, have been diagnosed."
From the Pulse article that Lark linked to.
So 5 identified from the sentinel programme. The numbers tested seem way to low to me to encompass screening of all flu-symptom patients, which is who I thought it was supposed to screen. However, this article says it's only testing severe respiratory infections. It doesn't state what the diagnostic criteria for this is.
Again, we are going to be missing massive swathes of the population. The whole point of random community screening is to screen lots of people! If we've got another really tight set of criteria then it won't be much better than the 111 screening.
If your respiratory infection is that severe you're likely to be going to A&E rather than a GP (especially with severe shortness of breath and pyrexia), and A&E aren't screening anyone! 🤦🏻♀️