Testing in the UK vs Europe

[workwoes123]

Hello

I keep reading on here that one reason for the very high positive case rate in the U.K. just now is that the UK tests so much more than in European countries. I’m just wondering why this is? Do you have screening / mass testing in schools or work places? Is it lab tests or home tests?

I’m in France and we are really only testing people with symptoms or who are cas contact. Mass testing is meant to be done in schools to avoid whole classes being sent home to isolate, but the labs are overloaded so it isn’t happening consistently.

Kids are supposed to do lateral flow tests at home, and some employees are asked to do them as well. There is no enforcement so it is ultimately a personal choice.

My dd's covid was picked up by a lateral flow test before she developed any symptoms so she was able to isolate from an earlier stage, hopefully reducing the number of other people she might have infected. It would have been picked up later when symptoms developed, though, so not sure that it contributed to higher stats - possibly the opposite, actually.

Of course, there are people who test positive and never go on to develop symptoms, so it's hard to know what the overall numbers are.

The UK has had 5.3 tests per capita.
France: 2.07
Germany: 0.985
Italy: 1.9
Spain: 1.4
Denmark: 16.6
Austria: 12.04

In UK there is a lot of testing in schools, hospital, prison and healthcare etc. Also it’s advised here to do lateral flow tests weekly as they are free to anyone and companies ask employees to do these and supply results. I know people who take tests before seeing elderly relatives or going to events etc. Also to attend other social activities if you are not fully vaccinated you have to test before you can attend. So yes, the UK are full on in testing, which in turn does pick up cases with no symptoms, which otherwise the person would be free to mix with others, but this is also one of the reasons we have high cases recorded.

We test almost a million a day here. I personally do 1 a week. Personally I think we test too much but I think it does give us a clearer picture than other countries with lower testing can achieve. I do think that’s why we show higher case numbers consistently than other EU countries. If you don’t test you won’t find cases as someone once said!
However on the flip side I think our huge testing is helping us right now , that and our booster program.
Bearing in mind England hasn’t got a mask mandate , doesn’t have vaccine passports and really no restrictions now.

I think the high positivity rates are due (in part) to people like me not reporting negative tests (one a week). Its such a faff

I'm in Germany and think we test an awful lot more than the figure quoted above, my kids test 3xweek in school, the unvaxed need to test every day now for work, to go on public transport, and used to have to for restaurants, theatre, sports events etc before the 2G rules came in.

Most tests are not done in the home as they're not deemed sufficient, you need an official result with QR code for it to be valid, the kids test in front of teachers at school, not at home before they go.

There's also talk of a 2G+ rule where even the vaxed will have to test for some events.

I lived in Spain until this summer. Seemed to be lots of tests - my daughters school tested all the kids every 21 days.

We also test much more than our official million a day suggests. My son does 2 a week but we don’t bother to register them if negative) so they don’t count in the figures. That must be multiplied across countless homes and work places. So we possibly actually test twice as many as our figures say.

Same as PP, I’m in Germany where I’m not testing regularly as I’m vaccinated, but I know kids in schools and the unvaccinated are.

The rate seems low because home tests and tests done in schools aren’t counted towards the reported figures. The only tests that count are those administered by testing centres and the doctors/hospitals. So that’s all the children’s tests missing from the ‘official’ numbers.

Home tests aren’t recognised anywhere (except in schools where kids have to do them in front of a member of staff), and for them to be counted they have to be administered by a medical professional. Needless to say, it’s logistically impossible to take a full school to a testing site 2/3 times per week.

So the testing rate is much higher than the numbers report, because we’re not counting home tests or those done in schools.

For comparison, my family are in Spain and they don’t test. Each member of my family has had less than 5 tests since March 2020 - three of those for symptoms, twice for travel. Schools don’t test and a home test costs you 15€ at the pharmacy and in some areas needs a prescription from the doctor.

So are the LFTs included in that total for the UK? i know they are hardly used here, except for random screening of primary classes. They are for sale in the pharmacies at €6 a pop but not given away free. IIRC the French government has really tightened up on testing availability to push people to get vaccinated - but it means that casual testing is really curtailed.

The reported LFTs are counted yes, as far as I know. Of course there are some people who don’t report negative ones, but many others still do.

Here in Germany they only count tests administered by a medical professional, and no more than one a week (although this might have changed recently, I last checked a month ago or so). So you have literally millions of children doing 2-3 tests a week which aren’t reported or counted towards the official figures, but the testing is happening.

We’ve moved from vaccine/recovery/negative test to vaccine or recovery only here, for access to restaurants, shopping centres, museums and indoor events… hopefully it gives people the final push to get vaccinated.

But uk will need to test more as no masks mean we all constantly have colds!
But also inefficient testing as instead of targeting at alll people with colds we just do the coughs so missing loads meaning random testing on asymptomatic is needed.

I would imagine almost all lft in UK go unrecorded so our actual number is massive. Where i work staff can have lft everyday yet no one actually records them - not even the positive ones

I wouldn't even know how to report an lft. My dc have never reported an lft - school have never asked them to

In my family of 4 we do 6 lfts a week under normal circumstances (one child has SEN and we can't do them on him). There's an outbreak in the youngests class atm, so me and him are doing 4 tests each a week instead of the usual 2. So in the last 2 weeks as a family we've done 18 lfts (plus 3 pcr), all 18 have been negative and I've not bothered reporting them. I'd report a positive but its already enough faff ordering the tests (I can only order 1xbox of 7 in a 24hr period), and the doing the actual tests.