Covid: PCR test rules eased for people with no symptoms, government announces

New policy comes into force from 11 January

Covid testing rules are to be relaxed for infected people in England who are not displaying symptoms, the government has announced.

Those who test positive for Covid with a lateral flow device will no longer need a follow-up PCR if they are asymptomatic, the UK Health Security Agency said.

The change in policy, enforced from 11 January and relevant to England only, comes as part of efforts to combat nationwide staff shortages, with hundreds of thousands of workers across the country absent from work due to Covid-related reasons.

People who test positive with a rapid lateral flow device will still have to isolate for at least seven days, starting from the day of their result. However, this cuts the time spent waiting for confirmation from a lab-based PCR test, which can take up to two days.

The change will also ease demand for PCR tests, which were unavailable to the public on numerous occasions over the festive period.

The guidance is temporary and will be reviewed when the proportion of people with the virus in England drops below one per cent for a sustained period, the UKHSA said. When the prevalence of Covid is high, the chances of receiving a false positive from a lateral flow device are low, the agency added.

Currently, four per cent of the English population has Covid, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Health minister Gillian Keegan said growing evidence on the accuracy of the tests and the availability of supplies had encouraged the government to adopt the policy change.

Those who test positive with a lateral flow and report their result via the government website will continue to be contacted by NHS Test and Trace.

People with Covid symptoms are meanwhile still required to take a PCR test and self-isolate if positive, health officials said.

Scientists welcomed the change in policy, saying it would also ease pressure on the UK’s overwhelmed testing laboratories, but cautioned that people need to make sure they report their positive results.

“When the prevalence is high – and it is incredibly high at the moment – almost everyone who tests positive with a lateral flow test will be a true positive,” said Professor John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

“There is really no need to confirm this with a PCR, a step that not only wastes time but costs a lot of money and uses up laboratory resources that could be better used elsewhere.”

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said it was “a sensible approach as long as positive results are reported and the lateral flow kits are in good supply”.

The policy was also adopted in January 202 when infection rates were high. Confirmatory PCRs were temporarily paused and later reintroduced in March following a reduction in prevalence.

UKHSA chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said: "While cases of Covid continue to rise, this tried and tested approach means that LFDs can be used confidently to indicate Covid-19 infection without the need for PCR confirmation.”

Estimates from earlier in the pandemic suggested that 40 per cent of people with Covid do not display any symptoms.

Responding to the announcement that PCR testing would be eased for asymptomatic people with Covid, Layla Moran MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, warned that the dependence on lateral flow devices could overlook the emergence of new variants.

“The Alpha variant was originally found in Kent and with hundreds of thousands of new infections in the UK daily, there is a greater chance of another variant emerging here,” she said.

“Effective sequencing and testing enabled South Africa to warn the world about Omicron and the risk of this change is that we could miss new variants that may be more deadly, infectious or resistant to vaccines.”

Prof Edmunds said there were “downsides” to the new guidance. “We would have slightly less information on the relative prevalence of the different variants circulating in the community, as PCR swabs undergo genotyping and sequencing, and the daily number of confirmed cases may need more careful interpretation.”