PCR going nowhere . Government winter covid plan .19 Sep 2021 12:56
PCR mentioned several times in the governments autumn/winter covid plan 2021.
Highlights below .
“Rapid asymptomatic testing is an important tool to help reduce the spread of the virus, while supporting people to manage their own risk and the risks to others. The Government will therefore continue to provide the public with access to free lateral flow tests in the coming months. People may wish to use regular rapid testing to help manage periods of risk such as after close contact with others in a higher risk environment, or before spending prolonged time with a more vulnerable person. At a later stage, as the Government’s response to the virus changes, universal free provision of LFDs will end, and individuals and businesses using the tests will bear the cost. The Government will engage widely on the form of this model as it is developed, recognising that rapid testing could continue to have an important, ongoing role to play in future.
Contact tracing will continue through the autumn and winter. This means NHS Test and Trace will continue to check with all positive cases whether they need support to self- isolate, find out who they may have passed the virus onto and alert those contacts, and ask all contacts to take a PCR test as soon as possible to help identify positive cases. Since 16 August, in England, under 18s and those who are fully vaccinated no longer need to self-isolate if they are identified as a contact. With over 80% of over 16s having received two vaccine doses,[footnote 19] the majority of adults and all children are no longer required to self-isolate. If they are identified as a contact, they are advised to take a PCR test and only need to self-isolate if positive.
To confront this risk, the Government has developed a range of tools to reduce the risk of variants emerging, stop and slow importation of the most dangerous variants, identify new variants and outbreaks, and ensure the Government is ready to respond if outbreaks occur.”
“Domestic sequencing capacity has been enhanced in 2021 and will continue to increase over the coming months, enabling a higher number of PCR positive cases to undergo whole genome sequencing, improving the detection of variants. In addition, wastewater testing and the use of new technology, such as genotype assay testing, have been expanded as an additional surveillance function to detect variants and outbreaks.”
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