Over-fives to get tested for virus
EVERYONE aged five and over is now eligible to be tested for coronavirus if they are showing symptoms, which have been expanded to included a loss of taste or smell.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock drastically increased the number of people who can get tested for Covid-19 across the UK yesterday, with the Government trying to track the spread of the disease in order to ease the lockdown.
His announcement in the House of Commons came after the chief medical officers added the loss of, or noticeable change to, taste and smell to the NHS’s list of coronavirus symptoms, weeks after experts first raised concerns that cases were being missed.
Anyone suffering the newly added symptoms, or a continuous cough or high fever, should self-isolate for seven days to risk the spread of infection, and anyone they live with should stay home for 14 days.
Previously only essential workers, the over-65s and individuals who live with them could apply for coronavirus testing on the NHS website if they were showing symptoms. But Mr Hancock told MPs that this was being expanded with immediate effect.
“I can announce to the House that everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible for a test,” he said.
“That applies right across the UK in all four nations from now.”
Meanwhile, less than a quarter of IT experts believe the UK’s coronavirus contact tracing app will be effective, according to a survey.
Just under half (45%) said they were undecided about it, while almost a third (32%) believe the tool will not be useful in helping to contain Covid-19.
The app is currently being trialled on the
Isle of Wight as part of the Government’s “test, track and trace” strategy to ease the country out of lockdown. Mr Hancock had indicated that a roll-out across the rest of England was on the cards for mid-May, but Downing Street has said the aim is to launch more widely in the “coming weeks”.
The survey of some 1716 IT professionals, conducted by BCS (British Computer Society) the Chartered Institute for IT, puts data security as the top concern at 69%, followed by privacy (67%).
Four in 10 (42%) suggested they would be willing to download the app for themselves, but 36% said they would not and the other 21% remain undecided.
Half of those surveyed said they would have preferred the Apple and Google approach, using a decentralised method keeping data between smartphones and not on a central database.
The decentralised model is being adopted by a number of countries across the world, but the UK has decided to go for a centralised approach, meaning a computer will receive data when the individual chooses to share it – a decision which is only favoured by 23% in the survey.