Ending of free testing in England

I get that the Government want us to get back to life as normal and have ended free testing. What I find difficult to swallow is the end of free testing for care home visitors. Along with my husband, I visit my Mum in one care home and my Stepdad in another (sadly they could not be placed together). It is a requirement of the homes that we have to test to visit. That's going to be quite expensive for us going forward. I don't think it's fair that we are charged to visit our loved ones.

I quite agree, boris once said he thought this country was overcrowded and you can't help but wonder if he saw covid as a chance for a good clear out, and a chance for his pals to earn a tidy packet

When I arrived at my mother’s care home yesterday it turns out that I no longer need to do a Covid test before I visit. I’d already done an LFT test and tried to register the result but received no text to show at the home. I explained to the deputy manager who let me in and she told me about this new arrangement. Apparently their staff still have to test but not the visitors. In the last few months they’ve had three Covid outbreaks all very successfully contained by their outbreak policy. Now visitors no longer need to test to visit a care home are we looking at many fatal outbreaks in care homes like at the beginning of the pandemic?

i still wear a mask when going to supermarket or any shop not because i have COPD and a heart problem even if i didnt have health issues i would still wear a mask and continue to do so

I have the virus ATM. Day 6 still positive. I have been very ill and it was not just like a cold, it put me in bed for 4 days and I'm not right yet. I'm fit, no underlying conditions, but it hit me badly. I think testing is still essential but £2 a test is too much for lots of people. I thought if I caught COVID I would be fine, but you just don't know

I had a bet with myself that Amazon would have LFT tests available. But so far, they don't. Not that I was intending to order one - just inquiring!

I am part of the ongoing 0NS testing programme and have been for nearly two years. Have just been notified that it is going to be extended for another year beyond what was planned. I answer a questionnaire every month, do a PCR test and also a blood test. It has been very successful apparently. My blood test is showing strong antibodies and I am 6 months past my booster jab. All very encouraging.
People can always buy LateralmFlow Tests now, why are we so hung up on expecting to get everything free ? If we lived almost anywhere else we would have to pay for elements of health provision and a lot more than the cost of a test kit.

Only people who are eligible for Covid treatment will have free test kit sent to them.

I think it is now up to ourselves, to take the care we need, to keep ourselves and our families safe. I will continue to wear a mask, just as the Asian tourists used to, in the years before the pandemic began. I will acquire tests to take, before mixing with vulnerable people. I will go along for the next booster jab when offered.

Next week will be a triumph at PMQs as the covid rate will have reduced substantially, Boris will crow.
Only because hardly anyone will be testing as they don't want to pay for the kit. And who can blame them, given the current financial fiasco?
And no, it's not like flu. I've had flu. I didn't end up in ICU with flu. And I didn't have to give up work because of flu. And I didn't suffer the after effects of flu 15 months later. But I did with covid.

Rosie51 the CEO of Boots is a mate of the Prime Minister. He is in that notorious Bullingdon Club photograph. Not that anyone would suggest for a minute tye reason LFTs are not being provided at cost price because there is cronyism and profiteering from the pandemic by this government and its associates.

Hubby and I have covid at the moment. Luckily we're just suffering from severe head cold symptoms. I'm aware others get it worse. My point is, we wore masks until a few weeks ago. Now we've stopped and suddenly get covid. One in fifteen has it in Northern Ireland now. Our figures are slightly better than the rest of UK.

Writing as one whose is immune system is compromised, I am saddened by the lack of mask wearing in the general population. That, combined with the latest rules regarding movement if one is Covid positive (i.e. although there is a recommendation to stay at home, it is not a lawful requirement) has accounted for the enormous surge in Covid cases. I know almost twenty people currently ill with Covid.

Many people will not have the means to take lateral flow tests at £2.00 per person (four in a family, £8.00 a time) which means that rates will rise even further.

I know of Covid-positive people who have gone for walks etc., 'because they are allowed'.

I do not expect people to protect my every movement but the above means I cannot be sure that anyone I pass in the street or park will not be shedding the virus as they go. Without being too dramatic, it could kill but hey, they need their unmasked walk, don't they?

I'm flying with Easyjet next weekend and they are asking for FFP2 masks, available at Boots, at £10 for 5. I think it is worth spending more for the added protection.

FannyCornforth

My husband, who is immune suppressed, got a box of tests delivered yesterday.
I hadn’t ordered them.
So I wonder if this is going to be a regular thing?
He also has a Respiratory Occupational Health Therapist who used to visit every six weeks.
She recently cancelled an appointment and hasn’t been in touch ( very unlike her ).
So I can only conclude that she is very busy with other (new) respiratory patients.

I also got a box of tests that I hadn’t ordered. Then an email the following day telling me they’d been sent because I’m extremely clinically vulnerable and if I get symptoms I should test and report. I’ll then be sent some tablets to take which lesson the symptoms and hopefully keep me out of hospital.
I still test before meeting people and a day or two later anyway.

I think they should give free tests for hospital, care home and other such places for visitors especially as they are asking people to take them before visiting. It is completely unreasonable to make people pay to see their loved ones!

Hannahloisluke thank you,
Yes my DH had the details about the antivirals too, and they sent him a PCR test as well.

I think that you have to take the antivirals in hospital.

There is a concerning thread on here about a problem with getting the antiviral drugs.

I keep bumping it, as I’d like to know more.
I probably should Google it - or perhaps not!

Candelle

Writing as one whose is immune system is compromised, I am saddened by the lack of mask wearing in the general population. That, combined with the latest rules regarding movement if one is Covid positive (i.e. although there is a recommendation to stay at home, it is not a lawful requirement) has accounted for the enormous surge in Covid cases. I know almost twenty people currently ill with Covid.

Many people will not have the means to take lateral flow tests at £2.00 per person (four in a family, £8.00 a time) which means that rates will rise even further.

I know of Covid-positive people who have gone for walks etc., 'because they are allowed'.

I do not expect people to protect my every movement but the above means I cannot be sure that anyone I pass in the street or park will not be shedding the virus as they go. Without being too dramatic, it could kill but hey, they need their unmasked walk, don't they?

I don't think transmission in the fresh air and with good social distancing has ever been the main spreader behaviour, Candelle, and I do understand why people don't want to spoil their walk by not having the fresh air in their faces as they always have done until spring 2020.

In confined and crowded spaces it's obviously another matter.

Not wearing a mask is not sensible.
Some of my neighbours have never tested therefore haven’t registered as having COVID
The figures in England are much higher than being recorded.
I went shopping this week and there was sneezing and coughing and croaky voices in the supermarket and only a very few were wearing masks.
Some believe the rules don’t apply to them and continue to deliver mail, work in local shops and schools etc.
We complain about living in ‘a Nanny state’
Well when the population is not told what to do ie wearing masks, they go into petulant child mode, and don’t wear a mask “because we don’t have too”

volver

I have no time for Christina Pagel; her three myths in the article cited:

1. Covid is endemic: Nobody has said this and she is using it to create a false environment of discord, to suggest that we are being lied to.

2. People believe that COVID is evolving to become milder. That has never been proposed in any communication from anywhere, because it would be a lie. If you think that COVID is evolving to become milder, you’re not paying attention.

3. Nobody thinks we are “finished” our vaccination program. We’ve just started the second booster program for the elderly and vulnerable. Hardly “finished”.

Mathematician Pagel is part of Indy SAGE who are hardly exemplars of good pandemic forecasting. And are suddenly finding themselves irrelevant.

Sorry, but she gets on my wick. Please feel free to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm sure somebody will.

Not me.
I am always glad to read your posts about Covid. I think you are the voice of reason. I am too but you back it up with facts and science so you don’t get shot down. Carry on posting please!

It's the blessed media once again scaremongering what a better kinder country we would be if they would just shut up . I'm fed up with their opinions that are stated as facts sick of partygate, covid , Brexit, prince harry ,women being erased once again , the labour party, Tory party etc

The fact that most of the people being admitted to hospital actually have Covid but are not admitted BECAUSE of Covid is true. People are going into hospital for other reasons but are tested and found to have Covid as a secondary thing. Even the Zoe App and Dr John are agreeing with that. The current death rate is in actual fact lower than it would be at this time of the year in normal circumstances. Not including murder and traffic accidents.

I wouldn't trust "Dr John" if he told me it was raining outside.

In my neck of the woods its between 1/3 and 1/2 who are not in hospital "because of" COVID. A real medical doctor told us that. One who works in a hospital and has responsibility for public health.

Read the .Gov website it explains who will still be eligible for Free LFTs and why and what they should do if they test positive. As far as I am aware there is no problem for these people to get the necessary drug. The problem is that people who think they are in the vulnerable groups to get these are not any longer. The list has changed some people who were originally in these groups aren't. Age wise its only over 75s. Care homes will still get the LFTs but whether they will have enough to test visitors is another matter. However paying £2:00 to go and visit my Mum, Dad or Husband/Wife would be lovely if I had the opportunity as all of mine are dead.

FannyCornforth

Hannahloisluke thank you,
Yes my DH had the details about the antivirals too, and they sent him a PCR test as well.

I think that you have to take the antivirals in hospital.

There is a concerning thread on here about a problem with getting the antiviral drugs.

I keep bumping it, as I’d like to know more.
I probably should Google it - or perhaps not!

Oh dear, I didn’t know there’s a problem with the antivirals.
Re the PCR test, I was sent one of those in December with the same message about the antivirals but the latest email tells me I don’t need to do a PCR, just report the LFT if positive and the antiviral tablets will be sent. Didn’t know they had to be taken in hospital. Better check that out. Thank you for the knowledge.