County has run short of Covid self testing kits
DEMAND LEADS TO SHORTAGE OF CORONAVIRUS TEST KITS
STAFFORDSHIRE has run out of coronavirus tests ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Thousands of people are desperately trying to ensure they are Covid-safe before celebrations to mark the end of a dismal 2021.
They have, up to now, been able book PCR tests on the Government website, either to be completed in person at a test site or to be sent to their homes.
Neither option was available as of 11.15am yesterday, but some PCR test slots at testing sites came available.
Lateral flow tests have also run out for home delivery. There may be tests available to pick up from pharmacies, but many are also understood to have run out
It comes amid a surge in cases in the county, where there were 8,667 new cases in the week up to Christmas Eve, a rise of 59 per cent, with an infection rate of 981.3 per 100,000 people.
And yesterday, there were 2,009 positive tests recorded in Staffordshire – eclipsing the previous record of 1,642, set on December 21.
There are understood to be no lateral flow or PCR tests available for delivery anywhere in the country this morning.
The national infection rate is 1,238.6, with 830,866 positive tests returned in the seven days to December 24. A record 183,037 cases were recorded yesterday.
The surge is thought to be down to the more-transmissible omicron Covid variant that has swept the nation in recent months. It is thought to be milder and thousands of people have boosted their immunity with vaccines since the start of December.
That means a far lower proportion of people with Covid are in hospital compared to earlier this year, when the delta variant was dominant.
However, some hospitals in London are under immense pressure as cases skyrocket and staff are forced off work by the virus.
A LEADING scientist has warned it is ‘very worrying’ that a shortage of Covid-19 tests could lead to people mixing over the New Year without being able to see whether they are infectious.
Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said the conditions at a New Year’s Eve gathering were ‘perfect’ for spreading coronavirus.
The UK Government is scrambling to secure supplies of tests from around the world to meet a surge in demand as people try to comply with guidance to limit the spread of the Omicron variant.
In a letter to MPS, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the supply of lateral flow tests (LFD) was being tripled in January and February from a pre-omicron plan of 100 million to 300 million per month.
“To respond to anticipated demand over the coming few weeks we are buying hundreds of millions more LFD tests, bringing new products on board and accelerating their deployment to the public,” he said.
But ‘in light of the huge demand for LFDS seen over the last three weeks, we expect to need to constrain the system at certain points over the next two weeks to manage supply over the course of each day, with new tranches of supply released regularly throughout each day.’
By 9am yesterday morning, home delivery slots for lateral flow tests were unavailable on the GOV.UK website.
Pharmacies have also complained about patchy supplies of lateral flow kits.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people in England heading out for New Year’s Eve festivities today to get tested.
But Prof Openshaw raised concerns about the prospect of people unable to get tested attending gatherings.
“I think it’s very worrying indeed,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We know the situations in which transmission happens and fortunately I don’t think we are facing the sort of lockdown that was necessary in order to cope in the very earliest part of this year.
“But we do know that crowding together in poorly ventilated spaces, particularly if you are shouting over loud music and so on, is absolutely perfect in terms of transmitting this very, very highly transmissible virus.”
In England – unlike other parts of the UK – nightclubs remain open and there are no limits on social mixing.
The NHS Covid Pass is required for entry to nightclubs, but this can be obtained by people who are double-jabbed, rather than requiring proof of a negative test.
The UK Health Security Agency said on Wednesday that eight million lateral flow test kits would be made available to pharmacies by New Year’s Eve.
The Government is under increasing pressure to up the capacity of coronavirus testing as case numbers reached their highest level yet. A new record was set for the daily number of coronavirus cases on Wednesday, as all four UK nations reported their figures for the first time since Christmas Eve.