Just £5 each – and an answer in minutes

MOST companies that have introduced rapid Covid testing in the workplace are using so- called lateral flow tests.

These are quicker and cheaper than the gold-standard PCR tests. Results are typically available in around 15 minutes, and should take an hour at the most.

Testing kits cost about £30 each. However, businesses buying in volume are likely to end up paying between £5 and £10 for each. So a business testing 100 employees twice weekly will be facing a cost of £1,000 to £2,000 a week.

The tests are highly sensitive so positive results are usually very reliable. However, some positive cases have been known to slip through the net, so regular testing is vital.

Under the pilot scheme launched by the Government l ast year, medical workers have been giving training to employees to enable staff to administer the tests on their colleagues.

The Government is handling the cost and sourcing of tests for companies in its pilot until the end of March. Novacyt is one of the largest providers. Smaller operators include Covid Home Test.

Test kits in the UK are regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Once in possession of the kit, companies are testing in two ways. The first is mass testing, where workers without symptoms are regularly checked on a voluntary basis to screen for the virus.

The second is daily contact testing. Those who think they may have been in contact with a Covid sufferer – perhaps because they were notified by the NHS Test and Trace app – are tested daily for seven days. They can continue to work if they test negative, eliminating the need for self-isolation.