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.

@Frazzled2207

"Indeed you are meant to log LFT results but a lot of people won’t bother now unless they specifically want a pcr. Predict case numbers will fall dramatically!"

+++

Sadly I agree with you.

But wow - who would have thought it could be that easy to finally end Covid. Why didn't anyone think of this solution before?

@Topseyt

"Topseyt
They are finally starting to phase out the obsessive testing. I am relieved about that. We do have to learn to live with this thing, it isn't going anywhere.

Boosters every year and then just get on with it would be my approach, although I am sure I will get my arse handed to me on a place for saying that. I don't care though."

++++

Sadly there will be a whole bunch of elderly and CEV who simply won't be able to live with Covid and that's before we even consider long Covid.

Also after two years of the Government, the NHS and the scientific advisors telling the public how dangerous this pandemic is, then it is not quite so simple to then tell the public to now crack on without any explanation of what has really changed.

Besides if the message does indeed change "to sorry but Covid is here for good and you will just have to live (or not) with it" , then there will be those who will raise the point of "then why didn't we do this from the start and save a whole bunch of money/ education/ mental health/ economic damage etc"

@GoodPrincessWenceslas

Sounds like they want to manipulate the statistics, as relatively few people with positive LFTs will bother to register them with the NHS.

This! Quite worrying tbh.

[quote 1dayatatime]@Topseyt

"Topseyt
They are finally starting to phase out the obsessive testing. I am relieved about that. We do have to learn to live with this thing, it isn't going anywhere.

Boosters every year and then just get on with it would be my approach, although I am sure I will get my arse handed to me on a place for saying that. I don't care though."

++++

Sadly there will be a whole bunch of elderly and CEV who simply won't be able to live with Covid and that's before we even consider long Covid.

Also after two years of the Government, the NHS and the scientific advisors telling the public how dangerous this pandemic is, then it is not quite so simple to then tell the public to now crack on without any explanation of what has really changed.

Besides if the message does indeed change "to sorry but Covid is here for good and you will just have to live (or not) with it" , then there will be those who will raise the point of "then why didn't we do this from the start and save a whole bunch of money/ education/ mental health/ economic damage etc"[/quote]
Erm vaccines!!

Yes as this will lower the scaremongering numbers and it will all go nice and quiet like covid just disappeared or something why because we have to learn to just live with it.

Yes I’m sure they’re phasing it out.
Before we know it, self-isolation will be for an hour.

@MalagaNights

We need to be moving to:

Get vaccinated.
If ill stay at home until you're better.

Job done.
It's over.

I think we are moving towards that, and about time too. The current situation isn't sustainable.

@Inastatus

"Erm vaccines!!"

So vaccines are only part of the answer and whilst they greatly reduce the chances of hospitalisation and death from Covid they do not eliminate it, this is particularly true for the elderly and CEV.

Measures such as WFH, face masks, hand sanitizers, restrictions on numbers of people for events etc also play a major role in reducing cases and whilst not eliminating Covid it does helps to smooth cases ensuring the health care system is not swamped.

On my second point, the public a
were initially (maybe falsely) under the impression that the vaccinations were a silver bullet promising life long immunity. Despite high levels of vaccination cases continue to rise with Omnicron. You can't on one hand inform people that cases are at their highest level ever and then expect them to crack on as per normal.

Lastly on my other side of the coin perspective. I am not saying this is a rational position nor one I share but I imagine those espousing this viewpoint will also comment on the waning effectiveness of the vaccine, that new variants come along like Omnicron that get around the vaccine, that vaccinated people still catch, get hospitalised and die etc.

1dayatatime
@Topseyt

++++

Besides if the message does indeed change "to sorry but Covid is here for good and you will just have to live (or not) with it" , then there will be those who will raise the point of "then why didn't we do this from the start and save a whole bunch of money/ education/ mental health/ economic damage etc"

Sorry ignore the last para after the ++++

I feel like this title is misleading… it’s people who test positive on LFD with no symptoms that don’t have to PCR. Not no PCR for anyone, people with the classic symptoms still do PCR test.

@1dayatatime - I don’t think there was ever an assumption that the vaccines would be able to completely eliminate the chance of getting seriously ill or dying from covid but they have reduced the risk to a much more acceptable level. I’m not saying it’s acceptable for anyone to die but people can and do die from all types of common illnesses, colds/flu etc, and most of the elderly people I know are vaccinated and just want to get back to normal.

The healthcare system is not currently swamped despite the huge rise in cases (which is largely driven by unprecedented levels of testing). I know a few nurses and a couple of Dr’s and they all tell me that most patients are either in for non-covid related things but happened to test positive on admission or else they are unvaccinated.

Of course we had to lockdown initially as we didn’t know enough about covid, it was killing off far too many people and in the early days I think there was a hope that we could eliminate it. Nearly 2 years later we are resigned to the fact that it’s not going away and we have to live with it but the vaccines are having a huge impact and alongside them we also now have very effective treatments such as anti-virals etc. It’s definitely time to crack on with it.

@LittleRen

I feel like this title is misleading… it’s people who test positive on LFD with no symptoms that don’t have to PCR. Not no PCR for anyone, people with the classic symptoms still do PCR test.

You are correct, the title and many posts within are completely misleading and I can see from the posts within that many people think they no longer need to do a pcr if they have symptoms and have a positive LFT.

If you have symptoms you still need to do a pcr!

@roses2 exactly, I have requested a title change.

I guess it’s just going back to how it used to be - when we weren’t supposed to test unless we had the three symptoms. The theory is you are less likely to pass it on if asymptomatic… at some point the testing had to be toned down, it’s not feasible to carry on this way.

When it was first put out there, I got the impression that they were going to be relying heavily on LFT.

It doesn't really sound like anything has changed then if you are still expected to get a PCR if you have symptoms.

Is the only difference now that certain workplaces are required to test daily? And if this is to help with isolation issues, how is that going to work. Isn't it going to cause more isolation?

Perhaps their mates got the money for private LfTand PCR over the Christmas period and now they’re happy to listen to the travel industry? Liam Patterson made supposedly £500k as a consultant before he finished.
Would be good if positives still were followed up though

I’m not sure if it’s an unintended consequence or not, but surely one result of this will be a drop in reported covid numbers? Not everyone who tests positive for covid at home on an lateral flow is going to bother registering their result. Whereas if you go and have a PCR done I imagine that is automatically registered as a positive test in the official statistics.

*So vaccines are only part of the answer and whilst they greatly reduce the chances of hospitalisation and death from Covid they do not eliminate it, this is particularly true for the elderly and CEV.

Measures such as WFH, face masks, hand sanitizers, restrictions on numbers of people for events etc also play a major role in reducing cases and whilst not eliminating Covid it does helps to smooth cases ensuring the health care system is not swamped*.

So, what? We do this forever because covid isnt going anywhere and Omicron has reduced its severity significantly. It's a sad fact of life that some people will die of illnesses other people shake off without a second thought. But we cant keep this going forever.

Reducing numbers at events will financially hit those events and likely make them not viable to hold in the first place. Or ticket prices would be insane to make up the costs lost and so they will become the playground of the rich only.

I think everyone needs to start to get their heads round the fact that covid will be one of those viruses in circulation forevermore. We have to get on with it, stop the isolations, testing etc and live with it as with live with other deadly viruses such as flu, noro etc.

Exactly.
I am isolating at the moment with nothing more than a slight cough (which lasted two nights). It's not sustainable in so many ways.

Why do people keep blithering about 'doing this forever'?

No, it's a pandemic, we take precautions and mitigations whilst it's a pandemic until we have controlled it down to endemic status. Probably another 18months to 2 years.

Pan-variant vaccines, better treatments and improved immunity are what will turn the pandemic into an endemic and enable us to relax the approach and begin to treat Covid more like other endemic diseases.

Being bored with it being a pandemic 2 years in won't make any difference to the virus.

We have to get on with it, stop the isolations, testing etc and live with it as with live with other deadly viruses such as flu, noro etc

Norovirus does trigger isolation requirements for identified cases alongside closing and cleaning of public spaces like schools and hospital wards. The 24/48hr requirement to stay away from schools/workplaces following D&V without diagnosis and regardless of cause is a mitigation measure to prevent the spread of norovirus, rotavirus and other sickness viruses. It’s not unknown for hospital wards to close to visitors due to norovirus outbreaks.

The difference we’re seeing is disease prevalence; instead of coming across it once in a while we’re in a period of very high infections.

I think covid is actually more comparable to TB in many ways rather than flu. There are obvious differences, not least that TB is caused by a bacteria not a virus, but I can see a lot of similarities in how it affects society and the pressure it causes due to volumes affected. Flu or TB I would expect to see restrictions and mitigations at similar levels of infection that we’re seeing now.

I’m not arguing against the fact that we’re almost certainly in a transition period on how to manage the asymptomatic/mildly affected given the impact of vaccinations but it does need caution and careful management because this virus isn’t stable (yet - I believe it will be at some point) and I don’t think we can afford, on any level, to get it badly wrong.

There's a substantial difference between being asked to leave school or a workplace for 48 hours as with noro, whilst retaining the ability to go elsewhere, and a legal requirement to isolate that can lead to criminal sanctions as with covid 19. You don't have to agree with the argument that we should treat covid like noro, but it would clearly represent a big change if we did.

@MalagaNights

We need to be moving to:

Get vaccinated.
If ill stay at home until you're better.

Job done.
It's over.

My asymptomatic teenager has to isolate for ten days and miss six school days. It’s ridiculous.

We have been doing LFT only for a couple on months bar travelers and hospital admissions.

They are now deciding to report case numbers weekly no daily.

There’s also an issue with people not logging LFT online - but not a payment have been enforced so this will go up.

The LFT aren’t reported as case numbers so we have dropped from top slot on worldometres!

My asymptomatic teenager has to isolate for ten days and miss six school days. It’s ridiculous.

It isn't ridiculous is it, because it is to stop someone else becoming seriously ill. It is only 'ridiculous' if you don't think it through.

Yes there is @VikingOnTheFridge but my point is that infection control requirements for other viruses and symptoms exist and it’s not an unusual practice as your wording implied. The main difference currently is disease prevalence and pandemic conditions.

It may be that we can’t implement similar measures for covid like we do with the example of norovirus because the symptoms are too broad and common but I’m sure the hope is we won’t need to and that’s the direction things appear to be moving with things like isolation periods but it would be unrealistic to think these are set in stone just yet. We need a period of stability to make that judgement and before that happens the situation is still fluid and has a high probability of changes beyond our control.

This pandemic will be over in real terms for most people long before it is for the people tasked with monitoring and managing it officially and during that time the possibility of a change in management and control strategies is still there.