TIER 3 TESTS BLITZ
PM: RAPID AND REPEAT TESTING IN HIGH ALERT AREAS IS ROUTE OUT OF LOCKDOWN
BORIS JOHNSON will today announce major testing programmes for all areas forced into the highest tier three level of coronavirus restrictions at the end of England’s national lockdown.
The prime minister is to pledge rapid and repeat testing for communities, with the support of NHS Test and Trace and the armed forces, under a strengthened three-tier system.
His ‘Covid winter plan’ is an extension of the pilot programme in Liverpool which has seen more than 200,000 people being tested.
As a potential route out of the severest measures, Mr Johnson (pictured) is hoping it will defuse any rebellion by Tory backbenchers. He is expected to tell MPs that the lockdown in England has led to a ‘flattening off’ in the increase in new cases.
‘But we are not out of the woods yet,’ he will say. ‘The virus is still present in communities across the country.
But with expansion in testing and vaccines edging closer to deployment, the regional tiered system will help get the virus back under control and keep it there.’ Repeated testing of contacts instead of isolation will be trialled in Liverpool from next week, and if results are promising will be extended across the NHS and care homes in December, before being rolled out to everyone from January. The winter plan also means every care home resident will be able to see two visitors twice a week by the end of the year, according to Downing Street. Meanwhile ‘freedom passes’ could be issued to those testing negative for coronavirus twice in a week, allowing them to swerve lockdown restrictions, according to the Sunday Telegraph.