Home testing could soon replace 10-day self-isolation

THE 10-day “stay at home” rule for people contacted by NHS Test and Trace could soon be lifted if a major new government trial proves daily coronavirus tests are a suitable alternative.

Under current rules, contacts of people who test positive for Covid-19 have to self-isolate for 10 days but people will instead be given a week’s worth of tests.

The study involving 40,000 people will see adults offered the chance to avoid quarantine every day if they produce a negative morning test.

The move marks the first steps to see whether Britain can ease strict quarantine rules, and would remove the threat of fines starting at £1,000 for leaving the home. Last night it was reported that Boris Johnson is considering scrapping the limit on the number of mourners at funerals from May 17, as well as the one-metre plus rule for social distancing from June 21. Up to 30 people will be allowed at funerals from May 17, according to the next stage of the Government’s lockdown roadmap. No 10 described the reports as “speculation”.

It comes amid an increasingly optimistic backdrop as the prevalence of the virus in society decreases, with modellers said to believe the risk of a third wave is dwindling because of promising vaccine data.

Deaths from Covid-19 have also been below the five year average of flu for the past six weeks. The trial will begin in England next Sunday and will reduce the numbers of people forced to miss work, helping to kick-start the economy.

And it emerged some test-and-trace contracts are not being renewed. A source said: “As a result of decreasing levels of prevalence, NHS Test and Trace are reducing the size of the contract-tracing workforce.”

The reduction in the team is in response to the fall in daily case rates, from 60,000 new cases each day at the peak to around 2,000 currently.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “We are continuing to respond to changes in demand and reflect staff numbers accordingly. Just as we increased numbers working in the trace service over the winter, we are now responding to the reduction in case numbers we’ve seen this spring.”

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said: “This new pilot could help shift the dial in our favour by offering a viable alternative to self-isolation for people who are contacts of positive Covid-19 cases, and one that would allow people to carry on going to work and living their lives,” he said.

From May 9, close contacts of people with Covid-19 will be contacted by telephone and sent seven days of rapid tests if they wish to participate in the study.

They will test themselves each morning for a week and, if negative and showing no symptoms, be exempt

from home quarantine. Prof Isabel Oliver, who is leading the study as Public Health England’s national infection service director, said the research was key to informing how “the approach to testing might evolve”.

Since December, more than 200 schools, 180 workplaces and about 800 people have participated in daily testing pilots that have proven effective in reducing the need for self-isolation, as well as identified cases of Covid-19 that would not have otherwise been found.

A document for Sage detailed a pilot of 1,370 close contacts using testing as an alternative to isolation. Running between December and January, uptake of testing was 62 per cent, but the group found this was lower among people from ethnic minority groups.

Health officials are drawing up plans to offer Pfizer jabs to children aged 12 and over from September, The Sunday

reported last night. “No decision has been made yet but we are drawing up planning materials for the different scenarios,” a source told the newspaper.