Are there any plans to deal with asymptomatic spread??

[Letsgetgoing123]

I feel that the symptomatic spread guidelines are pretty clear ( person to isolate with symptoms, plus household and book test).

But, is anything being done about asymptomatic spread?

How big a problem is this? Do we even know?

Surely until this is addressed, either by mass testing programmes or by other means, we will keep getting these spikes?

The virus is becoming endemic. Is isnt possible to reduce cases to zero because there will be some level of asymptomatic spread. that is OK as long as we can keep a lid on it to prevent overwhelming health services. The idea of stopping the spread entirely is ludicrous and unnecessary.

Mass testing will cost literally billions and due to the false positive rate and false negative rate, not even be worthwhile.

My brother, who lives in France, was due to come and visit our family last month. We told him that he would need to quarantine when he and his wife got here- so no restaurant visits, no pub visits, no meeting up with old friends etc etc. He was astounded that anyone actually bothers quarantining and said he had no intention of doing it. My sister and I got very cross with this attitude and told him that he definitely should quarantine, as well as being careful before they arrived because they were staying with our mum who is in her 70s and has a health issue that makes her vulnerable. Anyway, after a number of disagreements between us and him, his wife said that they would stick with the quarantine rules whilst here and they were going to get tested before they came back to the uk. They got tested and guess what? They both have Covid. The only symptom my sil had was a mild temperature one evening, and my brother is completely asymptomatic. They've decided not to travel to the uk. Had they travelled without testing and not doing the quarantine then I dread to think how many people they would have infected, and they also would have infected my mum, and potentially my family and my sister's family.

So yes, the asymptomatic people are an issue but I can't see the government rolling out mass testing for everyone when they've struggled to test those with actual symptoms.

Yep the plan is to get the numbers low with a temporary lockdown and meanwhile get a really effective track and trace system in place by May 2020; where anyone can get a test with results within 24 hours and anyone who comes in contact with a positive case is informed immediately.

Doing that all summer will mean that by September 2020 numbers are very low and we can keep a lid on it.

It's a great plan, but there have been some implementation issues.

given that you aren't supposed to test anyone unless they have symptoms, even if they have had known documented contact with multiple people who subsequently tested positive, I would say the answer to that is no.