Free lateral flow tests could be unavailable in Wales after June

FREE lateral flow tests in Wales could come to an end within three months.

First Minster Mark Drakeford yesterday admitted that free LFTS could soon be a thing of the past. Since they were introduced, lateral flows have enabled people to quickly check if they are likely to have Covid, thereby reducing the long delays that were associated with PCR tests.

The Evening Post asked the First Minister when he expected free lateral flows to end in Wales. Mr Drakeford said that he couldn’t give a concrete date at this point.

“We intend with the budget we’ve got available to us currently to continue them into June,” he said.

“At that point, I hope we will have final clarity from the UK Government of the budgets that may come to Wales to deal with the coronavirus impact in the next financial year beginning in only a week’s time. We still don’t have that clarity.”

The First Minister added that he would like to keep providing the tests if possible but that it would be challenging without assistance from the UK Government.

He said: “If we are in a position to go on providing tests beyond June and certainly if the context were to demand it, then that is what we would wish to do. But it is a mixture of the availability of the tests on the one hand and the availability of the funding needed to sustain a testing regime beyond June. We are using our own resources to keep them in place for longer than they are available elsewhere. And then we will have to make an assessment based on the capacity we have beyond that date.”