Week-long testing introduced for people in contact with Covid cases

Implemented from Tuesday, testing daily aims to reduce pressures on people’s lives by replacing the requirement to isolate for 10 days.

Unvaccinated adults, however, are not eligible for this new daily testing policy and must self-isolate for 10 days if they are in contact with someone who tests positive.

The policy also aims to identify asymptomatic cases and stop the chain of transmission.

The Department of Health & Social Care has said close contacts of people who test positive are at higher risk of getting Covid and, with one in three people asymptomatic, daily testing will help ensure people are not unknowingly passing the virus on to others.

It comes as new modelling from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) suggests that almost twice the number of coronavirus patients could be admitted to hospital compared with last year due to the impact of Omicron.

As before, people will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace by phone, email or text or the NHS Covid-19 app to tell them they came into contact with someone who tested positive.

Anyone whose rapid test comes back positive, or who develops Covid symptoms, should isolate and take a PCR test to verify the result.

If the PCR result comes back negative, contacts can leave self-isolation but should continue to take rapid tests for the remainder of the seven days.

If the PCR result comes back positive, contacts must isolate for 10 days from the day they took the positive rapid test or developed symptoms.

They do not need to continue taking rapid tests during that 10-day isolation period.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The Omicron variant is quickly gaining ground in the UK and is expected to become the dominant strain by mid-December.

“We are taking this proportionate and more practical measure to limit the impact on people’s day-to-day lives while helping to reduce the spread of Omicron.