Only select few to get rationed Covid tests
Priority for hospitals and care homes mean even those with symptoms may miss out
PEOPLE will be refused coronavirus tests even if they have symptoms, under plans to ration tests if the crisis deepens, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
A priority list drawn up by health officials suggests routine testing could be restricted to hospitals, care homes, certain key workers and schools.
It came as the UK recorded nearly 4,000 new Covid-19 cases for the first time since May, jumping from 3,539 to 3,991 cases in one day.
Yesterday, Boris Johnson said his Government was doing all it could to avoid a national lockdown, which he said would be “disastrous”.
However, ministers were poised to announce further lockdown measures, with pub curfews and a ban on household mixing in the North East, with Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Northumberland and Co Durham set to go back into lockdown amid a surge in cases.
The restrictions, covering two million people from midnight tonight, include a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants, no visits from other households and advice to avoid mixing except at work, school or university.
The Prime Minister warned last night that further national curfew measures will be necessary if the rule of six fails to bring down infections.
Meanwhile, schools were planning to go part-time if the testing chaos continued. Head teachers warned that unless the Government gets a grip on testing, they would need to put pupils on a rota of two weeks on, two weeks off.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said thousands of pupils and teachers were having to stay at home while they waited around for tests. “I am not trying to scaremonger but this does appear to be unravelling,” he said.
The Prime Minister admitted for the first time yesterday that the testing system had “huge problems”. Despite rising cases, delays in releasing test results meant those receiving a positive result the day after testing fell from 63 per cent at the start of the month to just 8 per cent this week. Ministers said the surge was caused by too many people seeking tests when they did not have symptoms or had not been contacted by NHS Test and Trace.
Officials said a quarter of capacity had been taken by those who did not meet eligibility criteria, including worried parents with children in the same group as a pupil with symptoms.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said he was reluctant to introduce eligibility checks as he wanted those with symptoms to get speedy access.
However, government sources said officials were considering limiting tests to the most at-risk groups if demand continued. Those in “watch-list” areas with worrying levels of Covid spread would also be high on the list for tests.
Low down on the list would be the public in areas not suffering major outbreaks, as well as businesses. Until now, ministers had suggested widespread testing could be used as a way to get more people back to work.
A government source said: “We are not yet at the stage of restricting access to tests for those who have symptoms.” Yesterday, Mr Johnson told MPS that new restrictions, such as the “rule of six”, were necessary to defeat the virus.
He said last night the only way to save family Christmases was to “be tough now” so that the rule could be lifted before the festive period.
Admitting the current system was unable to cope, he told the Commons liaison committee officials would “work night and day” to hit 500,000 daily tests.
Asked about his ambition to roll out “moonshot” mass testing for the whole population, Mr Johnson conceded that the technology seemed a “long way off ”.
Elsewhere, amid shambolic scenes, several A&E departments issued desperate pleas to the public to stay away after large numbers of people in Bolton, Liverpool and Plymouth turned up at hospitals seeking Covid tests.
Izzy Lyons
WHEN Boris Johnson promised the British public a “world-beating” testand-trace system, very few envisaged it would mean having to scramble to an Accident and Emergency ward in a desperate bid to find a coronavirus swab.
In a sign that the NHS’S testing farce is far from solved, hundreds of “poorly people” in Bolton – an area with one of the highest infection rates in the country – were left no choice but to visit their local A&E and GP surgeries to try to get a test for the virus after it proved impossible to book an appointment on the national system.
Doctors last night criticised the “failure” of the Government’s testing programme which has faced a backlog in recent weeks due to a bottleneck in laboratories processing samples.
Prof Donna Hall, the chairman of Bolton NHS Trust, said doctors are “on their knees with the amount of people who want tests”.
Managers at the Royal Bolton Hospital yesterday urged people to stay away from its A&E unit unless strictly necessary after more than 100 turned up to try to get a test.
“Very busy emergency department today as poorly people unable to get a test come to us for help. This is why it’s so important to have a functioning testing and tracing system – one day of delays can cause hundreds more infections. This is a very worrying situation for us in Bolton,” Prof Hall said.
NHS Providers, which represents NHS trust leaders, expressed concerns that shortages in online booking slots were leading to an increase in people attending A&E.
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive, said hospitals in Alder Hey and Plymouth were also forced to publicly announce that tests were unavailable in their emergency departments.
Yesterday, tests were not available for people with coronavirus symptoms in some of England’s worst affected areas. Out of the 10 local authorities with the highest Covid-19 infection rates, only one was offering slots. As the testing system struggled to cope with soaring demand, those trying to book an appointment in Hyndburn, which has the seventh highest rate, were being offered a walk-through nearly 20 miles away in Bolton, according to the Government website.
As of midday, tests were not available in the local authority of Oadby and Wigston, in Leicestershire, which has the second highest rate in England. Parents criticised the impact the testing crisis is having on schools, with hundreds of children being sent home only days after returning to the classroom. In several cases, a whole year group of 200 students were ordered to leave school and self-isolate for 14 days after just one child tested positive.
One parent described the heavy handed approach as “a sinister game of musical chairs”, adding: “It’s a matter of when our 15-year-old son, and his 200 child bubble, is sent home and he’s in his GCSE year. Could the Government please start figuring out how the exams due in seven months will be approached. What is the plan?!”
However, despite people struggling to get an appointment, pictures posted online show empty testing centres across the country at Heathrow Airport, North Greenwich, Leeds and Cambridge. Blackburn councillor Jim Smith criticised the city’s empty centres despite the huge demand. “It just seems like madness having test centres set up ready to go which aren’t taking anybody because the system isn’t working,” he said.
Multiple other
‘Very busy emergency department today as poorly people unable to get a test come to us for help. This is why it’s so important to have a functioning testing and tracing system’
students expressed concern at the impending academic year. “It is a shambles,” parents Jon Dasilva and Jo de Brito told the The Daily Telegraph. The couple were given “a mere few hours notice” late on Monday that their 16-year-old daughter, Amelie Brito, could no longer attend school and must self-isolate for 14 days because one student tested positive.
Amelie, who is in her final GCSE year at Buxton Community School, Derbyshire, is supposed to be sitting her mock exams in December. The couple said: “We have been told she can’t be tested because she doesn’t have symptoms but what should be happening is that every child in a bubble that is sent home should be tested and sent back to class if the results are negative. She is in her final year of her GCSES and she has already missed months of learning. She is supposed to have her mocks in December, which could end up predicting her final grades next summer if her academic year can’t sit exams like the last year. It is deeply worrying.”
Yesterday Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, admitted it would take weeks to address the growing backlog in test provision.
‘We have been told she can’t be tested because she doesn’t have symptoms. But what should be happening is that every child in a bubble that is sent home should be tested’