Watchdog blocks daily Covid tests in schools

BORIS Johnson’s plan to get children back into school by testing them for Covid daily has been undermined after a health watchdog refused to approve the scheme.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reportedly told the Government on Tuesday it would not authorise the use of tests in schools which give results in 30 minutes.

It said this was due to concerns the tests may give children false reassurances if they show up as negative which would risk them spreading the virus.

The decision has thrown the Government’s plan into disarray and raised questions over the expected full return of schools after the February half-term. Daily testing was at the heart of the Prime Minister’s strategy to get children back into classrooms with ministers already investing £78million in the scheme.

They believed it could easily identify infected children and prevent whole year-groups having to isolate due to a handful of positive cases. The initiative was part of the PM’s £100billion Operation Moonshot mass-testing plan, with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson calling it a ‘major milestone’. Mass testing was already underway in some secondary schools before they were closed in the lockdown. It was expected to be rolled out to primary schools and universities by the end of this month.

However, the plan was plunged into chaos after the MHRA’s decision emerged. The Government could apply for an ‘exceptional use’ authorisation from the MHRA but it is unclear whether it would be approved. Concerns have been repeatedly raised over the rapid lateral flow tests. A trial in Liverpool found they missed 30 per cent of people with a high viral load and half of the positive cases detected using a standard nasal swab.

Meanwhile, parents have criticised the online lessons their children are receiving, saying some teachers are only using Zoom to read out the register. All schools in England are expected to provide ‘between three and five teaching hours a day’, but this does not have to consist entirely of live lessons.

One mother told MailOnline: ‘The lessons for my five-year-old are a joke. The teacher just arranges a 15-minute call in the morning, where they run through the register, and then a 15-minute story in the afternoon. It feels as though they can just do what they want.’