Hancock says Covid tests are now having to be prioritised, with further restrictions possible

[JS87]

According to the Guardian, Matt Hancock is speaking in HoC and said:
We’ve seen a sharp rise in people coming forward for a test, including those who are not eligible.

And throughout this pandemic we have prioritised testing according to need. Over the summer, when demand was low, we were able to meet all requirements for testing, whether priorities or not.

But as demand has risen, so we are having to prioritise once again. And I do not shirk from decisions about prioritisation. They are not always comfortable, but they are important.

The top priority is, and always has been, acute clinical care.

The next priority is social care, where we’re now sending over 100,000 tests a day because we’ve all seen the risks this virus poses in care homes.

We’ll set out in full an updated prioritisation and I do not rule out further steps to make sure tests are used according to those priorities. It is a choice that we must make.

I don’t believe for a moment they are doing all those care home tests like they say. They said carers would get tested every week, most on the news are lucky if had one round since this all started.

@ConquestEmpireHungerPlague

I avoid all papers

I mean, that may be part of the problem @MarshaBradyo. You can't really expect to know what's going on if you don't read the news.

Of course I can. Radio 4 is good, do you not listen? It has very good scientists and experts and it is far better than any news based on a press release, which most headlines are. All paper have an agenda. Which do you read?

Print and television news is not in depth enough and I see you didn’t cite what you had read?

There’s nothing wrong with searching out information from people in the field rather than through the lens of a biased media.

Don’t you think Conquest?

@Hereinthesticks

Replace 'prioritise' with 'ration'. They didn't ensure there was enough capacity in the testing system and now they have to ration the testing to key workers. Parents are going to have to make a value judgement about whether their child has a simple cold. We are not medical experts but we have no choice now.

*Parents are going to have to make a value judgement about whether their child has a simple cold. We are not medical experts but we have no choice now*

Agreed but then the schools won’t allow a child with a cold back if there’s a slight cough. Way OTT.

If parents need to keep their children off for 14 days they need to get a test so they can go back to work.

It’s madness

So last week the government say that testing is the way out of this; now they are talking about limiting tests. Where is Matt Hancock's evidence that people are having tests regardless of symptoms? Most people getting tests are just trying to do the right thing, and now they're being blamed?

The government are utter fuckwits.

Actually reading your post again I can’t believe you think ‘the papers’ are the best way to know what’s going on.

Do you not want to dig deeper?

We have one of the highest per capita test rates in the world. I just don't get it. Why are there none available? It must be that more people who don't really need tests are accessing them, compared to other countries?

@SeekingCoffee33

This would be solved if they gave GPS more money so they could employ a person or people to gatekeep the tests and triage so the people most in need get the tests

Who would the GP practices employ and what telephone system would they use. GP practice lines don’t have infinite capacity and have a bad reputation for not being answered most of the time.

And yet people took Johnson seriously wrt Operation Moonshot? This country is fucking daft.

@unmarkedbythat

And yet people took Johnson seriously wrt Operation Moonshot? This country is fucking daft.

I don’t take BJ seriously when he talks about getting clotted cream to NI

@CrumbsThatsQuick

We have one of the highest per capita test rates in the world. I just don't get it. Why are there none available? It must be that more people who don't really need tests are accessing them, compared to other countries?

I don't get it either. We also have one of the narrowest symptom lists to test for.

The high test rates have always been a bit of a fudge, because it essentially measures how many swabs are sent/used. If a single person has both a nasal swab and a throat swab, that counts as two tests. If a swab goes in the post, then it's counted as a test. Even if none of those swabs end up yielding a valid result, they are all counted.

Thousands of tests are voided because they are transported at the wrong temperature or the sample leaks.

@LemonTT

They could probably employ a band four or five who could then escalate up the bands if needed... which shouldn’t be often. Its just a competent person who understands the symptoms and how they present etc. It’s not rocket science.

If each GP practice had this, and more investment in their phone lines like a dedicated number just for Covid tests then it wouldn’t get slammed.

But they won’t do that because the issue isn’t that people who aren’t entitled are having too many tests. That’s rubbish. The issue is that the service we currently have isn’t fit for purpose. It’s easier to point the blame at parents and schools though isn’t it?

@WhoWants2Know

The high test rates have always been a bit of a fudge, because it essentially measures how many swabs are sent/used. If a single person has both a nasal swab and a throat swab, that counts as two tests. If a swab goes in the post, then it's counted as a test. Even if none of those swabs end up yielding a valid result, they are all counted.

Thousands of tests are voided because they are transported at the wrong temperature or the sample leaks.

The government claims that they're no longer counting nose and throat swabs for one person as two tests: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-data-methodology/covid-19-testing-data-methodology-note. I don't know if there's any data on the rates of voided tests for different countries to compare and see if the UK's is unusually high.

Knowledge is power in the fight against covid 19. Testing should have been ramped up massively for Sept as people came back from holidays, started school etc. Then we would know how much of it is circulating etc. Government's fault again.

We all know that kids get coughs, sniffles etc on starting back in school. But as a parent, you now have to make a judgement call on how serious your kid's illness is.

Prioritising is going to lead to people not getting tests and therefore not being able to back to work & school if test negative or not knowing if its positive and either mingling about in the community or not treating it as covid until their health condition deteriorates. It will take increasing death rates in children for there to be public outrage and action taken by this government.

Also if testing rates are low, then cases will present as low and give the impression that everything is being managed so well..........

On fb a woman said she went for a test
Pregnant
Asthmatic
No symptoms but in contact with a positive
I said you shouldnt have tested and she changed it to they didnt let her

Multiple people on th mn threads too testing for contact as they think they can avoid the 14d.
Then of course all the app requests.

Maybe they should have all covid symptoms list
And if they have more of them
Or ask how long the fever lasted etc?
Ask dry/wet cough.
Say people still need to isolate but prioritise the ones with the right symtoms.
But for dd the symptoms have built up to finally a cough.

Surely most people get a cough with a cold. ?
Tbh i would be happy if the coughers just had to isolate every one of them for the 10d.

Anyway the issue is the gov are idiots (though i do believe this is intended to infect the children) no measures to stop the spread of any virus clearly!
Would people now change their minds about the masks? As basically the only other choice is going to be isolate every time...
At least there would need to be the option.
Though it did look like france had a problem too and arent the kids there wearing masks??

A staggered start at minimum would have made sense.
And allowing home school without dereg.
But I guarantee they cant fine now.

@shushymcshush

Knowledge is power in the fight against covid 19. Testing should have been ramped up massively for Sept as people came back from holidays, started school etc. Then we would know how much of it is circulating etc. Government's fault again.

We all know that kids get coughs, sniffles etc on starting back in school. But as a parent, you now have to make a judgement call on how serious your kid's illness is.

Prioritising is going to lead to people not getting tests and therefore not being able to back to work & school if test negative or not knowing if its positive and either mingling about in the community or not treating it as covid until their health condition deteriorates. It will take increasing death rates in children for there to be public outrage and action taken by this government.

Also if testing rates are low, then cases will present as low and give the impression that everything is being managed so well..........

I think a problem is that the seriousness of symptoms doesn’t correlate with having covid. We know that children tend to have a much milder illness, and that they often present with atypical symptoms to adults (eg upset stomach). The stakes aren’t so much about an unwell child, but sending in a child who then causes an outbreak in their class.

So for parents to be using their judgment on this is very very tricky.

@Redolent
Exactly.

DS had a sore throat last week. I had to make a judgement call on whether I thought it was just "one of those things" or keep an eye out for possibly Covid.

If kids are naturally super spreaders and in "big bubbles" of 30+ kids in class (primary) then kids should be priority for testing, as should health care workers, teachers, those in essential services e.g.transport etc. Essentially everybody!

If not, employers will be fed up with parents isolating monthly to be on the safe side. People will be at risk of losing their jobs and will go into work and send kids into school, putting everybody at risk.

Policy with regards to testing, trace doesn't seem to factor in human behaviour at all

All other things being equal in a redundancy pool...parents of young kids will be first to go as a much higher risk of absence etc from employers.

It's an absolute joke. Without knowing which children have confirmed covid, the virus will just tear through schools and families. People are going to refuse to repeatedly isolate their entire household because their children catch cold after cold. It's another lie from the government since every child that needed a test would apparently get a test come September.

The schools obviously aren't covid secure with over 800 already affected across the UK and issues with testing/track and trace mean more parents will feel sending in their children is unsafe.

I think we really need to challenge the narrative that lots of people are inappropriately having tests. I have just read an e-mail from my local council saying that the positivity rate for tests in our local area is currently over 6%. The fact that well over one in twenty people who go for tests are testing positive doesn't indicate lots of inappropriate testing to me, bearing in mind that fevers and new coughs are not uncommon and people are told to test for those.

Our son was sent home from school because he had a cough and was told he couldn't go back without a negative test.

He has ashma so often gets a cough when he gets a cold. The school didn't understand it wasn't a consistent cough either.

It took us 4 days of checking every 15mins to get a test and even then we had to drive a 4 hour round trip to get him tested. Plus the rest of the family needed to self isolate until his test came back.

I have no issues with testing when and if needed but when we can't get a test it's a nightmare.

We are a large family so dread to think how many tests we will need through winter.

@Popcornriver is there somewhere that says number of schools that have been affected? Where have you seen that info - is there a link? Thanks

@Magentastorm101

Our son was sent home from school because he had a cough and was told he couldn't go back without a negative test.

He has ashma so often gets a cough when he gets a cold. The school didn't understand it wasn't a consistent cough either.

It took us 4 days of checking every 15mins to get a test and even then we had to drive a 4 hour round trip to get him tested. Plus the rest of the family needed to self isolate until his test came back.

I have no issues with testing when and if needed but when we can't get a test it's a nightmare.

We are a large family so dread to think how many tests we will need through winter.

The problem with this delay is the tests need to be done early. So the negative by day five is pretty meaningless - so no contact tracing will be done when it may need to be.

This is both a pain for the children/families waiting for tests and a huge risk for increased community transmission.

Schools are simply not safe now

If not enough tests for schools then they need to close or every sick child needs to stay home for 14 days if symptoms and the bubble pops.

Care homes should be high priority but so should schools. The potential for it to spread in the community is more likely from school cases than care home cases die to sheer numbers, no PPE and little or no SD.