How will we test?

[PeacheyPeach]

I've just read that lft tests are being scrapped at the end of the week. How will we test then ? will we have to book a pcr test or are we just not testing at all? What about when we go on holiday or meeting up with vulnerable family members or friends??

teenagetantrums - interesting. Thanks for the info. I cant find any updates online but the manageress at 1 home (who really does not like me) has been making my life extremely difficult in the last 2 years and INSISTS on testing. She does not want cross contamination between the homes which I do understand. Suppose I will just wait and see how it all pans out.

@TypicaIMe

Sorry, forgot to say only CEV who are eligible for antivirals are eligible for free LFTs.

I’m in the same position as you. But I can’t find the government guidelines that have changed. I fall within the appendix that says I will get anti virals due to biologic therapy. I know other people on these have been denied anti virals but on what basis? Where are these new rules? If your testing depends on lfts I’d phone rheumatology and ask them.

Most people won’t test now. You can buy them privately but I’m not going to be spending money on them. Back to normal common sense of stay home when you’re too ill to go out, otherwise business as usual. Everyone will take their own precautions how they see fit, but for the majority it’s getting on with normal life now, thank goodness.

Er people "testing too much and thus producing high case rates" doesn't explain the high death rates....

I can't find information online about carers and home carers? Going from house to house, usually from very vulnerable people.

@TypicaIMe

Sorry, forgot to say only CEV who are eligible for antivirals are eligible for free LFTs.

I'm apparently eligible and have been coded correctly according to the doctor No LFT yet and I don't have a priority PCR

Here is the new guidance www.gov.uk/government/news/changes-to-covid-19-testing-in-england-from-1-april

This seems to be NHS England page on treatments
www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/community-treatments/

Covid is not a cold or flu - either in current prevalence, risk profile, or how it is spread. There's no logic to saying we treat it as if it was a cold or flu, any more than there is to saying we will treat it like measles or Ebola.

Every disease is different, and for this one, there are tests available for under £2 that tell you whether you are likely to be a risk to vulnerable people or not (and yes, I realise that is unaffordable to many, and particularly hard on larger families wanting to visit vulnerable relatives, I'd have done it differently. But affordable to some).

www.superdrug.com/Health/Home-Testing-Kits/Flowflex-Lateral-Flow-Test-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen-/p/819343

@TypicaIMe if essential then they’ll get them for free. If not, then they’ll just have to pay like the rest of the world pays for themselves or follow common sense

The tests were never free, it's been public money that could have been spent on better needed resources elsewhere that's quite literally been put up people's noses.

It's not a moment too soon. I'm glad that the vulnerable and NHS workers will continue to get them for free though. I've seen first hand non-vulnerable people doing LFTs up to 3 times a day, and those who have just had a positive PCR result testing twice daily afterwards 'just to see'. To see what?!?!

Christ on a bike. Will nobody think of the environment? The level of paranoia the pandemic has created is extraordinary. Let's not forget that 1/3 of all cases of (extremely dangerous to some) flu are entirely asymptomatic, a fact that's never really bothered anybody before.

I shall still test before visiting my mum who is in a care home - even if that's no longer required by law. I have seen the tests are available to buy in Lloyds chemist around £1.90 per test .

[quote EasterIssland]@TypicaIMe if essential then they’ll get them for free. If not, then they’ll just have to pay like the rest of the world pays for themselves or follow common sense[/quote]
That's the thing. For many people on immunosuppressant drugs testing is essential.

What a shock, the government have got a thing wrong.

I shall still test before visiting my mum who is in a care home

Are tests actually picking up covid? I read that you are infectious for two days before even testing positive on LTFs.

@HoolaCoola

teenagetantrums - interesting. Thanks for the info. I cant find any updates online but the manageress at 1 home (who really does not like me) has been making my life extremely difficult in the last 2 years and INSISTS on testing. She does not want cross contamination between the homes which I do understand. Suppose I will just wait and see how it all pans out.

My dads home have said that as a private business, they can decide. And no negative test, no entry/taking them out.

We can’t move him as we only just moved him from another he wasn’t being treated well in. At that one, you had to do one there, supervised and then wait until they came to tell you it was negative - which was up to 2-3 hours later sometimes.

if you didn’t come in a car, you had to wait under a gazebo outside all that time. There were lots of elderly people freezing waiting outside to see people but if you dared let them sit in your car, the manager would run out barking that you both needed to repeat the tests. And lord help you if you asked for the result before someone came out.

They are still going with that policy from what
I’ve heard, madness.

Two years in & countless times people have explained it to you, so there's no point really... but someone younger & healthier may have it, asymptomatically & without it causing them any problems, the more vulnerable person they pass it on to may get very sick or die, but yeah, why let that bother you.

The same applies to hundreds of other viruses and bugs including the common cold.

Are you going to start making people test and isolate without pay for that too?

@JanglyBeads

Er people "testing too much and thus producing high case rates" doesn't explain the high death rates....

Yes, it does.

A lot of people died with Covid which isn't the same as dying of Covid.

@bumblefeline

I haven't tested in months. If I feel ill I stay in. I have a sky high pile of lateral flow tests from school.

I could sell them for a fortune.

The reliance on LFTs is bizarre.

@bumblefeline well if you want to get rid of any I'd be grateful for some - I'm CEV but not in the critically vulnerable immunosuppressed group who will get free LFTs. For me it's still really vital to be able to test and pick it up early if possible. So if you fancy giving a few away, if they're taking up room....

A lot of people died with Covid which isn't the same as dying of Covid

Yes, how we collate/d data isn’t perfect and it was decided in view of the high numbers to count deaths within 28 days of a positive test. This has captured some deaths where covid where covid won’t have been the primary cause.

However this is countered somewhat by a separate count (freely available on the government covid stats page) that is based on covid being included on a death certificate. This will include the deaths that happened after 28 days because covid can take longer to result in death as well as discount those deaths where it had nothing to do with the death such as the fabled demise from being hit by a lorry two weeks after a positive test. This count is approximately 20k higher than the official within 28 days count.