LONDON (UK) – Britain’s health ministry said that there were no plans to stop rapid coronavirus testing, after the Guardian newspaper reported the programme may see changes in England due to concerns about false positives.
“With around one in three people not showing symptoms of COVID-19, regular, rapid testing is an essential tool to control the spread of the virus as restrictions ease by picking up cases that would not otherwise have been detected,” a ministry spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
“Rapid testing detects cases quickly, meaning positive cases can isolate immediately, and figures show that for every 1,000 lateral flow tests carried out, there is fewer than one false positive result.”
The spokeswoman said regional models were based on too small a sample size to come to conclusions, adding “there are no plans to halt the universal programme”.
Britain reported 2,672 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, government data showed, up slightly from 2,491 on Wednesday.
A total of 32.44 million people had gotten a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by April 14 and 8.51 million people had received a second dose.