Ending of free testing in England

I think it’s bizarre to stop testing at this time.
Christine Pagel has written a piece in the Guardian today and this is what she says
We’re living two realities: one in which people have returned to living life as if covid is over, and the other in which we are approaching record levels of infections, with an estimated 4.26 million cases last week. Most of us know people who have covid, work and education are being disrupted, and the NHS is under severe strain again due to new patients and sick staff. Admissions with covid are only 2% below the first omicron peak two months ago and still rising. Primary covid admissions are rising too and admissions in over 65s are now 15% higher than Jan ‘22 peak.

Yes GrannyGravy Covid is a clever little virus.
Let’s hope that it continues to mutate in the right direction! Who knows?
Even so what’s sure it that we will be left with its legacy for many years to come.

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.

Well, I know for a members of my own family have been off sick over the past couple of weeks. Our local NHS Trust has stopped visiting because of the impact of Covid on patients and staff. I can't think that this is unique.

Okay. I stand corrected.

Grandmabatty

I'm assuming it's because more people in Scotland are testing and recording results. The approach here has generally been more cautious.

The testing rate in Scotland does not appear higher according the the uk dashboard testing over the last 7 days in Scotland just under 140k testing in England 4.5m

I have it and I know loads of other people with it too. The care teams are so short staffed atm that we are sharing staff with other services

I know this is a very British thing to post but could it be to do with the weather and being indoors/outdoors.

Nope.

The higher rate is based on sampling and extrapolation done by the ONS, and is done exactly the same way in England.

Scotland does actually have a higher rate of infection than the rest of the UK at the moment. And anecdotally, about 90%+ are wearing masks.

We don’t seem to have ‘half of the country off sick’ where I live, hospitals, GP surgeries, bin rounds, shops, schools etc are all running normally.

Covid is a clever little virus.

Let’s hope it continues to mutate and become less severe, just like the common cold (which I think is a coronavirus?)

I'm assuming it's because more people in Scotland are testing and recording results. The approach here has generally been more cautious.

Mask wearing is required by law in Scotland and we have a far higher infection rate than England at the moment.

How do we explain that?