This Covid-test run-around undermines the return to work and school

sir – My seven-year-old grandson came down with a temperature and a sore throat just before the bank holiday weekend.

My daughter conscientiously decided to self-isolate the family, and tried to book a drive-in Covid test locally, without success. The nearest available facility was 100 miles away.

A test kit was then requested online on the same day. It was delivered too late on Saturday for completion and return by the final post that day, as stipulated in the documentation.

As it was a bank holiday on Monday, there was no postal collection until Tuesday. My daughter duly conducted the test but then found there was no security tag included in the kit. She telephoned for advice, but was told that the test would not be accepted without the security tag.

Moreover, as five days had now elapsed, it was apparently too late for my grandson to be tested. When she asked for further advice on quarantine she was told: “You decide.” Not to be put off (and as my daughter now had similar symptoms) an attempt was made on Tuesday to book a drive-in test for herself, but the nearest available facility was in Wales, 240 miles from her home in Essex.

This is the parlous state of our “world=beating” testing system, which is meant to ensure a return to school and work in safety this autumn.

Michael Bean

Peterborough

sir – The average number of deaths per day from Covid-19, for the past week, was eight, according to the Government’s figures.

The average deaths per day (by 2018 figures) from some other causes are: cancer 452; dementia and Alzheimer’s disease 141; chronic lower respiratory diseases 51; influenza and pneumonia 48; suicides 18; road deaths 5.

Yet what is the policy on these other causes? Hospital appointments have been cancelled and doctors still refuse to see patients. There appears to be no plan afoot to ban the sale of cars.

What is going on? When is this overblown emphasis on the virus going to end, with all its business of masks, rules and restrictions?

Alan Billingsley

Whitworth, Lancashire

sir – A public health menace is the indiscriminate disposal of single-use face masks. These reservoirs of contamination are left in supermarket trolleys, town centres and on beaches. My wife, returning from walking the dog, spotted one hanging in a hedge.

These potential killers are no better than spitting in a public place. Perhaps Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, might arrange for yellow hazardous waste bins to be placed strategically.

Stephen J Barrett

Richmond, North Yorkshire

sir – The gov.uk website shares this insight with us: “No travel is risk-free, and disruption is still possible.”

I think that advice might apply to simply being alive.

Mark Timmis

London N16