LONDON (AP) — Health authorities across the United Kingdom simplified COVID-19 testing requirements on Wednesday, a move designed to cut isolation times for many people and that may ease the staffing shortages that are hitting public services from hospitals to garbage collection amid an omicron-fuelled surge in infections.
In another effort to bolster the economy, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that pre-departure tests for people travelling to England will no longer be required because the omicron variant is so prevalent that travel restrictions meant to contain its spread are now meaningless.
The tests had discouraged people from travelling overseas for fear they would get stuck abroad.
The moves came as the Cabinet backed Johnson’s decision not to impose any further restrictions despite record COVID-19 infection levels.
With indications that omicron is less severe than earlier variants and widespread vaccination curtailing serious illnesses, the government is sticking with light-touch controls imposed in mid-December.
“All these measures are balanced and proportionate ways of ensuring we can live with COVID without letting our guard down,” Johnson told lawmakers.
The UK Health Security Agency said that from January 11 people in England who test positive using a rapid lateral flow test will no longer need to confirm the result with a PCR test if they are asymptomatic.
The temporary move, which also was used early last year, will cut the time people who record a positive lateral flow test but don’t have COVID-19 symptoms need to self-isolate.
They will no longer need to wait for the result of a PCR test and then begin another seven days of isolation.
“While cases of COVID continue to rise, this tried-and-tested approach means that LFDs (lateral flow devices) can be used confidently to indicate COVID-19 infection without the need for PCR confirmation,” said Jenny Harries, the agency’s chief executive.
Health authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland quickly followed suit, with Northern Ireland making the change immediately. Scotland and Wales plan to introduce it starting Thursday.
Epidemiologist John Edmunds, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the move made sense.
“When the prevalence is high, and it is incredibly high at the moment, almost everyone who tests positive with a lateral flow test will be a true positive,” Edmunds said.
“There is really no need to confirm this with a PCR, a step that not only wastes time but costs a lot of money and uses up laboratory resources that could be better used elsewhere.”
But he cautioned that the change will mean authorities have less data about the spread of different variants as PCR swabs are used for genotyping and sequencing to identify different mutations.
The change also will mean that daily updates on confirmed cases — which come from PCR tests — “may need more careful interpretation,” he said.
Confirmed new infections over the last seven days jumped 40% from a week earlier, according to the latest government statistics.