The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tests for over-fives who are showing symptoms
Sturgeon says drive-in centres and mobile testing to be available across country
Coronavirus tests are now available to all over the age of five who are showing symptoms, it has been announced.
Nicola Sturgeon said the tests would be available at drive-in centres across the country, or through any of the mobile testing centres, with the scheme being a collaboration between the Scottish and UK governments.
Up to now, testing has been limited to people with symptoms who are key workers, hospital patients, care home residents, over-65s and those who need to leave home to work in England and Scotland
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, speaking in the Commons, said: “Everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible for a test, that applies right across the UK in all four nations from now.
“Anyone with a new continuous cough, a high temperature or the loss or change of sense of taste or smell can book a test by visiting nhs.uk/ coronavirus.
“Yesterday we conducted 100,678 tests. Every day we are creating more capacity and that means more people can be tested, and the virus has fewer places to hide.”
It came as the UK’s chief medical officers agreed to add a loss of smell or taste to the list of coronavirus symptoms that people should look out for and selfisolate with.
Anyone experiencing a loss of smell or taste, also known as anosmia, should now self-isolate for seven days to reduce the risk of spreading the infection, according to guidance from
Until now, the NHS has only listed high temperature and cough as the symptoms that require further action.
Ear, nose and throat doctors have been warning for weeks that the symptoms should be broadened out.
The UK’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, told reporters yesterday that the move would mean 93% of cases where people have symptoms are now picked up, a rise from 91% previously.
It comes after a study led by Professor
Tim Spector at King’s College London found that 59% of Covid-19 positive patients reported loss of smell and taste, compared with only 18% of those who tested negative for the disease.
These results were much stronger in predicting if somebody had coronavirus than if they reported fever.
Prof Spector criticised the UK Government’s response to his research, saying infected people were being encouraged back to work in England when there was a failure to track symptoms properly.
He said 50,000- 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 were currently not being told to self-isolate even though they had the virus.
He added that there are even more symptoms – such as tiredness, stomach pain or diarrhoea – that could be included as possible coronavirus symptoms.
He said: “We list about 14 symptoms which we know are related to having a positive swab test.
“These are not being picked up by the NHS. “