WHO Foundation chief ‘very concerned’ over UK dismantling Covid testing as pandemic ‘isn’t over’

Exclusive: UK’s choice to dismantle Covid-19 testing is “very worrying” says leading WHO Foundation head

Concerns have been raised about changes to Covid testing in the UK (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A leading figure in the World Health Organisation Foundation has criticised the UK’s move to dismantle its Covid testing programme as the disease surges in other parts of the world.

Mr Anil Soni, chief executive of the WHO Foundation, said in an interview with The Independent that maintaining surveillance over Covid-19 was “incredibly important” and the “dismantling of the testing infrastructure here strikes me as very worrying.”

The WHO Foundation chief warned people were “looking the other way” from counties where there is low vaccine coverage to maintain the hope that Covid is over.

He warned low vaccine coverage is a “petri dish” for future variants to breed and that the acute phase of the pandemic could not be over until this is addressed.

The WHO Foundation supports the World Health Organisation in funding for its global health projects.

The fast-spreading omicron variant is overwhelming Hong Kong (AP)

When asked about the UK’s plans to end its NHS Test and Trace programme Mr Soni said: “I’m very concerned about it.

“What we’ve seen is, it’s incredibly important to maintain surveillance, and countries in southern Africa should be applauded for detecting Omicron as quickly as they did. Those surveillance systems need to be in place around the world.

“We also want to make sure that testing is widely available so that people, when they become infectious, can be aware of their status and keep others safe. For testing not to be available and for us to be moving too quickly to normalcy creates risk.”

The global health leader’s comments come as Covid-19 infection and rates of hospitalisation rises again in the UK, as public health officials warned on Wednesday the pandemic is not over.

From the end of this month the government is due to scrap free Covid testing as part of its plans for “living with Covid”. The future for testing within hospitals and for healthcare staff also remains unclear.

Mr Soni said the world’s position with Covid was “precarious” and highlighted the surge being seen in Hong Kong, where “health centres are at the verge of collapse, because of how many people are sick”.

He said: “I think the fact that a setting like Hong Kong, that was so successful at implementing measures to reduce infections, and in increasing access to vaccines, is having the crisis it’s having today is absolutely a worrying sign for the rest of us.”

Hong Kong this week was forced to put mass Covid testing plans on hold to deal with soaring mortality rates, which are now the highest in the world.

The city of 7.4 million people has recorded 500,000 infections during the current wave, when previously it had only had about 100,000 cases in total. It has now recorded more than 2,600 deaths since the end of December.

Mr Soni told The Independent “I appreciate how much all of us want this pandemic to be over or want the acute phase of the pandemic to be over.

“But it’s not over. People are looking the other way. They’re looking away from Africa. They’re looking away from these countries in which you have low vaccine coverage.”

The UK is relying on vaccines to curb the spread of Covid (PA Archive)

The WHO has called for richer countries to contribute to a £16bn fund for Covid research, healthcare and vaccine coverage.

Mr Soni sent a warning to countries not playing their part in helping low-income countries on vaccine coverage. “Vaccine inequity creates a Petri dish where variants breed.”

He argued that although the G7 counties has previously been good at investing in global health when it comes to Covid-19 they’d “fallen short”.

Mr Soni also urged western pharmaceutical companies to share their vaccine IPs and enable manufacturing of Covid jab in countries where they could be made at high volume and low cost.

The foundation has also launched a “Go Give One” campaign calling for donations to support the development and manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines globally.