World-beating test and trace system!

It certainly seems easier than a 4hour drive to do one!- if theres none available online, says you can go back on later& try then.

Not everyone gets extra ones, theres 3 of us, only 2 were ill,so only asked for 2 tests!

We were Negative anyway!

Our local test center was virtually without clients on Saturday morning. I don't know what that means, except we are still low on infection rates. Of course that's of no help to anyone needing a test elsewhere.

The testing situation is now a complete shambles. No one should be making these ridiculously long trips to get a test. One would have thought that the need for extra testing capacity, once schools went back, could easily have been foreseen!
I foresee with dread, a winter of children being sent home, with schools insisting on a negative test result before they can return, when the vast majority of symptoms will in fact be the common cold. I do sympathise with schools: they will be damned if they appear to be too cautious and damned if they don't.

On Sunday morning I took my grandson to the Exeter Park and Ride to catch a bus to the train station for his trip to London. As soon as I drove into the car park we saw 10 men in yellow jackets there. One came running up to us and started to direct us to another area.
It was a covid testing centre. As we were too early for the bus we waited there and saw only one or two cars enter for the test. Hardly anyone in 15 minutes. Probably had not been advertised.

Can someone tell me where the government are getting their figures for Covid infections when hardly anyone is able to do a test?

I agree with Nannapat, there will be a lot of anxiety and missed school/work over non-Covid illnesses as the year progresses.
Also, I understand that at least one university lab has offered to process Covid tests but no one in authority has engaged with them. I wonder what excuse the government have for that? Oh! I know, it’s not a private company run by a relative or mate at a huge profit.

My GGD aged 6 had a temperature and was sick. Her mother managed to get postal test meanwhile her boys were taken out of school and whole family had to isolate. Got results four days later. negative.

It took my son 10 days and 3 tests to finally get the negative result he needed so he could get back to work. The first test came back unclear, he then managed to get a postal test which he sent back the same day but it must have got lost in the post cause he never heard back. He booked another test yesterday which they had to do twice on site (they said the first one wouldn't have been any good because there was too much snot on it (sorry folks)....
He too was initially offered tests hundreds of miles away but had to update the web page all day long til local ones were loaded on the system.

I know of people who have requested a test just out of curiosity. Whole families with none have temp, cough or change in taste/smell. There are people abusing the system. Very difficult to gauge if children have symptoms or another type of virus/bug especially with schools back and the usual coughs and colds no doubt around. Don't be naive, there is abuse going on when there is no charge.

My son, who has just returned to Uni, has been in contact with 3 people who have tested positively for Covid-19. We have been investigating the availability of tests as he has no transport but home tests aren't available. Although it is only a 25 mile round trip to a testing station, it might as well be 10 times that if you haven't got transport. Within his household of 6, he and one other are self isolating in their rooms but I suspect that it is probably too late for the rest of the household because it took a couple of days before he found out somebody had symptoms. However, without his flatmates helping out with his shopping, my son has little food until he can get a delivery. So now you have 4 people who have been potentially exposed to the virus mixing with others until they get confirmation that my son and/or his friend are clear providing they aren't one of those who don't get any.

4allweknow

I know of people who have requested a test just out of curiosity. Whole families with none have temp, cough or change in taste/smell. There are people abusing the system. Very difficult to gauge if children have symptoms or another type of virus/bug especially with schools back and the usual coughs and colds no doubt around. Don't be naive, there is abuse going on when there is no charge.

Did they actually tell you that they had a test out of curiosity? Did their test involve a long drive? To Barnard Castle, by any chance?

Caramac

I agree with Nannapat, there will be a lot of anxiety and missed school/work over non-Covid illnesses as the year progresses.
Also, I understand that at least one university lab has offered to process Covid tests but no one in authority has engaged with them. I wonder what excuse the government have for that? Oh! I know, it’s not a private company run by a relative or mate at a huge profit.

NHS labs also have spare capacity, but Serco (who are doing most of the tests) prefer to use Lighthouse Labs.

Well....
We all quite rightly lambasted Dominic Cummings for driving a long distance when apparently his family had symptoms, and now we are being told to travel even greater distances with possibly a sick child( who would very probably need a toilet stop) You couldn’t make it up!!!!!!!

Not only that, but you get blamed if you're negative for not needing a test, despite being told just two weeks ago to get a test if you're worried and have just one symptom.

Obviously 4allweknow knows an exception, but I honestly don't believe there are many people who want to drive miles to have swabs stuck up their nose and down their throat for fun.

I can completely understand the difficulties and chaos at the start of the pandemic, but 6 months in, I really don’t understand why they haven’t increased laboratory capacity, if that is the ‘pinch point’.

They always warned of higher cases in the winter - did no-one expect that to need more tests? Never mind it being rather obvious that once people started mixing more at work, school, Uni etc there would be higher demand.

It might be an unprecedented event, but needing an increasingly large test capability is hardly unexpected.

My sister lives in what the 'Rule Britannia Brigade' would firmly regard as a third world country. She is horrified at the situation here and is begging me to seriously consider emigrating to join her where the health facilities are not necessariy "world beating" but simply effective and available to all.

Being a laughing stock is one thing but being put at risk of the effects of a serious infectious disease is something that can be managed by a better government. To think that those clowns are in power as a result of a democratic vote!

Is there no way of removing this totally incompetent shower. They have ignored all the obvious signs and driven us into this test and trace chaos. We are the laughing stock of the world. God help us.

Not daft at all chicken but vital fact finding to determine how much asymptomatic Covid is circulating.

nipsmum we do have similar problems in Scotland unfortunately. No home tests available.
Sadly I know of a household in England who ordered home testing kits 'just in case '!!
It made me very angry.
The whole debacle is a joke in very poor taste.
The government will definitely have known more testing kits were required and should not be wasting them on random sampling and questionnaires!

I've had two covid tests whilst in hospital and they are not pleasant. I can't imagine anyone putting their whole family through it out of curiosity.
Matt Hancock is blaming the public again. Dido Harding is running this Serco shambles and she is chums with Boris. NOT appointed for her expertise her record is also a shambles, just look at Talk Talk when she was CEO. Her hubby is an mp who advocates for the privatisation of the NHS. Join the dots.

Where is Dido Harding in all this complete shambles.?
In spite of Johnson calling it NHS test and trace it was given to Serco under her management. Surely she should be resigning after such a complete mess.

There was a young guy interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning who had just returned from a holiday in Spain. He thought he ought to get tested. He was asked if he had any symptoms and he said no. He was asked if he thought he should therefore have a test when he didn't qualify for one, and he said Why not?

My DS just phoned. His restaurant is now closed after a customer was found to have the virus. They were informed. DS and staff advised to be tested. He applied for a test, was sent to his local surgery for it and says he'll be texted in the next 48 hours with the result. He was quite happy with the efficiency of it all. Just have to wait for result.
Meanwhile restaurant closed until staff tested. If any found infected it'll be shut for 14 days. Not good news for cash flow or jobs ?