Government set to announce those with positive LFT will not need PCR

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news.sky.com/story/covid-19-around-a-million-people-isolating-due-to-coronavirus-in-uk-as-testing-rules-set-to-be-relaxed-12509316 COVID-19: People who test positive on lateral flow tests won't need follow-up PCR, govt to announce - as 'around a million' isolating 

Whilst this sounds like a good idea, what about those of us who have recently had positive lateral flows and negative pcrs? There seems to be a lot of us.

That sounds odd, without PCRS they won't be able to do any sequencing, something which we have (internationally) made a big thing of being one of the best at.

Perhaps part of a slow phasing out of testing altogether?

They just announced they are doing this in Australia as well. No need to confirm with a PCR so it may be a shift worldwide?

I’m pretty sure that the sky article in wrong as it suggests isolation is delayed until you do a pcr test whereas it starts when you get positive lft or symptoms.

Not sure Of the rationale tbh other than taking pressure off pcr system

so they may as well do away with PCRs entirely then? Because surely most people do LTFs before they take a PCR?

Even if they had symptoms and they had booked a PCR, I would still take a LTF beforehand just to set my expectations more than anything!

A lot of people in here are insistent that very faint lines are positive LFT. Whilst some of these do lead to positive pcr the majority don’t and personally I have seen them a lot on our tests. I would only count my LFT as positive without a follow up
PCR if it was a clear strong positive line. Anything very faint I would still do a pcr.

They can't do away with PCRs because if you're symptomatic you need a test which is less likely to give a false positive than a LFD is. That is, LFD may say you're negative when you're not.

I don't know how employers will view this. The PCR result was the evidence of the need to isolate, so it would become a case of taking people's word for it that they say they can't go to work.

I know the test centres/processing units can't keep up with the demand though, so it makes sense from that side of things.

There’s got to eventually become a day where we treat Covid with common sense the same as the flu/any other virus. If you feel poorly, you don’t go out, you don’t go to work etc. If Omicron is a mild form of the virus and the hospitalisations/deaths follow this tract then it seems crazy to have millions of people testing daily and isolating for it.

@TeddyTonks

Perhaps part of a slow phasing out of testing altogether?

This is my thoughts as well to be honest.

Made even worse by the fact LFTs are still hard to get.

@JS87

A lot of people in here are insistent that very faint lines are positive LFT. Whilst some of these do lead to positive pcr the majority don’t and personally I have seen them a lot on our tests. I would only count my LFT as positive without a follow up PCR if it was a clear strong positive line. Anything very faint I would still do a pcr.

Mine were not faint.

Aren’t the LFTs notoriously unreliable? We might as well just stop testing, stop isolating and crack on. It might mutate again, and who knows to what, but these contradictory half-measures seem pointless?

With one breath BJ warns of a difficult month and the pandemic isn’t over, but also ramps back on the only method for tracking case numbers/virus profile and actual clinical proof of infection?!

One or t’other please Boris, you melt.

My whole extended family has just got covid and it took between 3-5 days for our LFTs to go positive after a positive PCR which we had all taken as we had been identified as close contacts so I hope this doesn’t mean that people just rely on LFTs as we would all have been negative on LFT for days even after symptoms started! We asked test and protect about this and they said this was very common.

Emergency measure only, I assume - testing facilities swamped perhaps?

Why do they always leak stuff it makes it confusing. Just announce your announcement.

Why are people doing LFTs after a pcr? It’s driving me mad. It’s on every thread!!

Personally I agree, we need to scrap testing altogether except perhaps in vulnerable places like hospitals. And I’ve been extraordinarily conservative throughout the pandemic. But the numbers are now rendering testing and containment pointless.

@ThoseFestiveLights

Why are people doing LFTs after a pcr? It’s driving me mad. It’s on every thread!!

Personally I agree, we need to scrap testing altogether except perhaps in vulnerable places like hospitals. And I’ve been extraordinarily conservative throughout the pandemic. But the numbers are now rendering testing and containment pointless.

Because that's the new guidance - negative test on day 6 and 7 to be able to end isolation early.

@ThoseFestiveLights

Why are people doing LFTs after a pcr? It’s driving me mad. It’s on every thread!!

Personally I agree, we need to scrap testing altogether except perhaps in vulnerable places like hospitals. And I’ve been extraordinarily conservative throughout the pandemic. But the numbers are now rendering testing and containment pointless.

Because they need to so they can be released after 7 days

Aren’t the LFTs notoriously unreliable?

Yes but only in the sense that they have a high false negative rate. So not PCR testing positives does mean that if your positive is wrong you are a bit stuffed, but in terms of taking positive people out of circulation then LFT only isn't that bad.

It might be a temporary measure whilst numbers are so high, but it's also an experiment to see if it could be safely used longer term. If everyone symptomatic did PCRs then there would still be samples to sequence to track variants - I suppose one remaining question is whether there would be sufficient to make for good enough survelliance

@ThoseFestiveLights

Why are people doing LFTs after a pcr? It’s driving me mad. It’s on every thread!!

Personally I agree, we need to scrap testing altogether except perhaps in vulnerable places like hospitals. And I’ve been extraordinarily conservative throughout the pandemic. But the numbers are now rendering testing and containment pointless.

Because you have to if you want to end isolation early and people can't afford to keep taking 10 days isolation.

It’s likely due to demand being very high and refocusing on what you do

But also when prevalence is this high rate of false positive falls

I’m pleased as part of moving towards lower testing over time

There's also talk of rationing LFT's being sent out to the general public. They're definitely phasing out testing.

I think it makes sense to prioritise PCRs for people who are symptomatic but negative on LFT. We know that false positives on LFT are rare (you're actually more likely to get a false negative PCR) so there's no massive need to get a confirmatory PCR.

I also have colleagues (NHS) who are close contacts of covid cases and can't come back to work without a negative PCR but are struggling to get one because of the current demand.

I think it makes sense overall although I worry that the confusion will also reduce compliance with isolation rules.

False positive on an LFT (something like 1/3000 last time I checked) is much less likely than a false positive PCR (around 1/20). LFTs give a higher rate of false negatives but a positive result is reliable

To be fair to @ThoseFestiveLights I was one of the people doing LFTs after a positive PCR. It was for curiosity really. On a couple of days out of the 10. This was back in October.