Lateral flow guidelines

[EshSchools]

Apologies for being dim but I (and it turns out quite a few friends) am confused about the household testing rules and guidelines.

I know that the tests are available - just picked some up- but I don't know what the rules are. Is is compulsory/ optional/ encouraged?

They're not compulsory

They're also not that accurate lol

If you have symptoms, get a PCR!

If you don't have symptoms, but think you may have picked it up anyway, then do an LF test - if +ve, confirm with a PCR.

It’s definitely encouraged as it may pick up cases with no symptoms. My son does one each week for work and says he feels safer with all his colleagues doing the same.

Strongly encouraged for households with school children to all do a test twice a week, and report the result online.

Not your fault the messaging has not been clear on this.! It's all explained here:

www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-lateral-flow-antigen-testing-for-people-without-symptoms#who-can-be-tested

and there should be an Instruction leaflet with your test kit.

Great that you’ve picked them up. Not compulsory but helps to find asymptomatic cases. They are most effective at picking up cases if done twice a week. They aren’t as sensitive as the tests they do if you have symptoms, so don’t assume that a negative test means you’re all clear. They miss about 40 percent of positive cases but this doesn’t matter as they are designed to pick up cases that would otherwise be missed. If anyone has symptoms they must book a PCR test as these are far more sensitive and accurate. A positive lateral flow test should be followed up by a PCR test but the rate of false positives is believed to be 0.1 percent.