If you are part of this group, you will be contacted directly and sent Lateral Flow Tests LFTs to keep at home, along with details of how to reorder tests. Staff in adult social care services including homecare organisations and care homes. Residents in care homes and extra care, and supported living services. You can find out more on the government website. Please be kind, caring and supportive of one another.
Please respect the personal choices of others, consider your own risk and take responsibility to keep each other safe. After that date free universal testing will end.
The Government has announced that some of our residents will still be able to access free symptomatic PCR tests:. Rapid lateral flow device LFD testing for people without symptoms of COVID will continue after Friday 1 April in some high-risk settings where infection can spread rapidly while prevalence is high. This includes:. However, it is strongly advised that you stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least 5 days from.
If both these tests are negative, and you do not have a temperature, you can return to your normal routine. If you leave your home before 10 full days after testing positive, you risk passing COVID to other people. This means you should:.
Your close contacts will no longer be required to self-isolate or advised to take daily tests. However, it is strongly recommended that you continue to inform your close contacts that you have tested positive. If you experience the symptoms below, but cannot access a test, it is recommended that you stay at home and self isolate for five days or until you no longer have a temperature.
You should avoid contact with people. Related Content. Most issues can be resolved online, it's the quickest and most convenient way to get help. COVID vaccinations are the best way to protect yourself against the virus and can help stop the spread. Wear a face covering, especially in busy, indoor areas. Wearing a face covering reduces the spread of coronavirus. If those who drop out of the sample are significantly different from those who remain, it will affect researchers' ability to produce estimates that are generalisable to the target population.
We monitor the number of people who drop out of the sample to mitigate the potential risks caused by attrition. To do this, laboratories use a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test RT-PCR , not a lateral flow test.
We ask everyone aged 2 years or older in each household to have a nose and throat swab, regardless of whether anyone is reporting symptoms or not. Those aged 12 years and older take their own swabs using self-swabbing kits, and parents or carers use the same type of kits to take swabs from their children aged between 2 and 11 years old. This is to reduce the risk to the study health workers and participants. We need to know more about how the virus is transmitted in individuals who test positive on nose and throat swabs; whether individuals who have had the virus can be re-infected symptomatically or asymptomatically; and about incidence of new positive tests in individuals who have not been exposed to the virus before.
To address these questions, we collect data over time. Every participant is swabbed once; participants are also invited to have repeat tests every week for the first five weeks as well as monthly. Initially this was for a period of 12 months.
From May , existing participants were invited to remain in the study until April and new participants were invited to take part in the study until this date. The protocol offers more detailed information about when and how we collect data. Information about how we process nose and throat swabs is found in Section 4: Processing the data.
We collect blood samples from a randomly selected subsample of adults aged 8 years or older to test for antibodies, which help us to assess the number of people who have been infected in the past, and the impact of the vaccination programme at both the population and the individual level. Participants give 0. The blood samples are taken at enrolment and then every month.
Information about how we process the blood sample data is found in Section 4: Processing the data. Blood tubes are kept in a cool bag during the day, and then sent to the University of Oxford overnight. Residual blood samples will be stored by the University of Oxford after testing where consent is given for this.
We use the Coronavirus Infection Survey questionnaire to collect information from each participant, including those aged under 16 years. We collect information about their socio-demographic characteristics, any symptoms that they are experiencing, whether they are self-isolating, their occupation, how often they work from home, and whether the participant has come into contact with someone who they suspect has COVID We also ask participants questions about their experiences of the pandemic, including questions about long COVID, whether participants have been vaccinated, how they travel to work, number of contacts with different amounts of physical and social distancing, and whether participants smoke.
Each participant in a household who agrees to participate are provided with an individual identifier. This allows for the differentiation of data collected between each household member. Swabs and blood are labelled with a barcode, which is linked to the participant's individual identifier on the study database. The nose and throat swabs are sent to the Lighthouse laboratory in Glasgow. This is an accredited test that is also used within the national testing programme. Swabs are discarded after testing.
The virus genetic material from every positive swab with sufficient virus cycle threshold Ct value less than 30 is sent for whole genome sequencing at Northumbria University, to find out more about the different types of virus and variants of virus circulating in the UK. If a test is positive, the positive result is linked to the date that the swab was taken, not to the date that the swab was analysed in the laboratory. Each swab can have one, two or all three genes detected.
This allows conversion of amplification assay raw data from the ABI Fast into test results with minimal manual intervention. We estimate a single Ct value as the arithmetic mean of Ct values for genes detected Spearman correlation greater than 0. More information on how swabs are analysed can be found in the study protocol. The Cycle threshold Ct value is the number of cycles that each polymerase chain reaction PCR test goes through before a positive result is detectable.
If there is a high quantity of the virus present, a positive result will be identified after a low number of cycles. However, if there is only a small amount of the virus present, then it will take more cycles to detect it. These values are used as a proxy for the quantity of the virus, also known as the viral load. The higher the viral load, the lower the Ct value.
These values are helpful for monitoring the strength of the virus and for identifying patterns that could suggest changes in the way the virus is transmitting.
RT-PCR from nose and throat swabs may be falsely negative , because of their quality or the timing of collection. The virus in nose and throat secretions peak in the first week of symptoms but may decline below the limit of detection in patients who present with symptoms beyond this time frame.
For people who have been infected and then recovered, the RT-PCR technique provides no information about prior exposure or immunity. To address this, we also collect blood samples to test for antibodies.
We try to read all the letters of the virus' genetic material for every positive nose and throat swab with sufficient virus to do so Ct less than This is called whole genome sequencing. Sequencing is not successful on all samples that we test, and sometimes only part of the genome is sequenced. This is especially so for the higher Ct values below 30, which are common in our data as we often catch people early or late in infection when viral loads tend to be lower and hence Ct values are higher.
Where we successfully sequence over half of the genome, we use the sequence data to work out which type of variant is present in each virus. This method can tell us which variant might be responsible for any potential increase in cases, for example, cases which are either the Omicron variant or the Delta variant. However, because we cannot get a sequence from every positive result, there is more uncertainty in these estimates.
These data are provided in our technical dataset using the international standard labels. The sequencing is currently produced by Northumbria University and analysis is produced by research partners at the University of Oxford. More information on variants can be found in the Analysis of viral load and variants of COVID section of our weekly bulletin, and information on how we measure variants from positive tests on the survey can be found in our blog Understanding COVID variants — What can the Coronavirus Infection Survey tell us?
Blood samples are tested for antibodies, which are produced to fight the virus. We measure the presence of antibodies in the community population to understand who has had coronavirus COVID in the past, and the impact of vaccinations. It takes between two and three weeks after infection or vaccination for the body to make enough antibodies to fight the infection.
Having antibodies can help to prevent individuals from getting infected again, or if they do get infected, they are less likely to have severe symptoms. Once infected or vaccinated, antibodies remain in the blood at low levels and can decline over time. The length of time antibodies remain at detectable levels in the blood is not fully known. From March , we also test samples for IgG immunoglobulins against the nucleocapsid N protein to try to distinguish between those with immunity due to natural infection who would be anti-S and anti-N positive and vaccination anti-S positive, but anti-N negative because vaccine produce antibodies to spike only.
We now use more than one threshold for antibody positivity in analysis. The standard threshold for antibody positivity in the blood is 42 nanograms per millilitre ng per ml. In addition, research has shown that a higher antibody threshold may provide a better measure of protection for those who have been vaccinated and not had a prior infection. Therefore, we now include additional breakdowns of our estimates to a higher threshold.
For example, in January , a higher threshold of ng per ml was introduced. This higher threshold was identified by comparing how the risk of new COVID infections with the most common COVID variant at the time of the research, the Delta variant, varied across different antibody levels. A negative test result will occur if there are no antibodies or if antibody levels are too low to reach this threshold.
It is important to draw the distinction between testing positive for antibodies and having immunity meaning having a lower risk of getting infected or infected again. Following infection or vaccination, antibody levels can vary and sometimes increase but are still below the level identified as "positive" in our test, and other tests.
This does not mean that a person has no protection against COVID, as an immune response does not rely on the presence of antibodies alone. A person's T cell response will provide protection but is not detected by blood tests for antibodies. A person's immune response is affected by a number of factors, including health conditions and age. The study protocol includes more information about swab and blood sample procedure and analysis.
As in any survey, some data can be incorrect or missing. For example, participants and interviewers sometimes misinterpret questions or skip them by accident.
We ran a pilot study before the full study, through which we have learnt how to improve the wording of the questions and the questionnaire structure. To minimise the impact of incorrect or missing data, we clean the data, by editing or removing data that are clearly incorrect. For example, when a participant leaves their job blank, we take their previous answer instead, but only if they say they have not changed their job and we correct the misspelled names of countries that people say they have travelled to.
We do not report the prevalence rate. To calculate the prevalence rate, we would need an accurate understanding of the swab test's sensitivity true-positive rate and specificity true-negative rate. Our data and related studies provide an indication of what these are likely to be. To understand the potential impact, we have estimated what prevalence would be in two scenarios using different possible test sensitivity and specificity rates.
Test sensitivity measures how often the test correctly identifies those who have the virus, so a test with high sensitivity will not have many false-negative results.
Our study involves participants self-swabbing under the supervision of a study healthcare worker. It is possible that some participants may take the swab incorrectly, which could lead to more false-negative results. However, research suggests that self-swabbing under supervision is likely to be as accurate as swabs collected directly by healthcare workers.
Test specificity measures how often the test correctly identifies those who do not have the virus, so a test with high specificity will not have many false-positive results.
For example, in the six-week period from 31 July to 10 September , of the , total samples tested positive. Even if all these positives were false, specificity would still be We know that the virus was still circulating at this time, so it is extremely unlikely that all these positives are false.
However, it is important to consider whether many of the small number of positive tests we do have might be false. There are two main reasons we do not think that is the case. Symptoms are an indication that someone has the virus; but are reported in a minority of participants at each visit.
We might expect that false-positives would not report symptoms or might report fewer symptoms because the positive is false.
- 5 things to know about recent changes to testing - UK Health Security Agency
In the face of the surge in Omicron cases the Government changed the rules so some people won't have to wait for a follow up PCR test, after getting a positive lateral flow. Those testing positive on a lateral flow are now required to isolate for five full days, and can leave quarantine on day six after negative tests on day five and six.
If you've got symptoms of the virus, you can get a test and there are 12 other reasons that you can still access a follow up PCR. The NHS says you can get a free PCR test if you have a new persistent cough , a high temperature or a loss of taste or smell. You can also do a lateral flow test at home which takes just 30 minutes and due to Omicron cases being high across the UK, people are urged to just take these.
While Omicron cases remain high, they are falling and most people who catch the bug say they have cold-like symptoms. A string of hugely positive studies show Omicron IS milder than other Covid strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta. Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic , health officials have repeatedly said.
The Sun's Jabs Army campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits' arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions. PCR polymerase chain reaction tests are the gold standard and are sent off to a lab to be properly processed - unlike lateral flow tests that can be completed at home in less than an hour.
It is sent to a laboratory where a lab technician looks for genetic material of the virus using highly specialised equipment. The PCR tests are much better at finding very small amounts of the virus, especially early during an infection. So these are used primarily in people who have Covid symptoms. It uses a long cotton bud, which takes a swab of the inside of your nose and the back of your throat.
NHS Test and Trace figures show around 95 per cent of people get a result in 24 hours if they are tested under Pillar 1, which covers places like hospitals and outbreak spots.
But around 60 per cent of those tested at large drive-through centres, under Pillar 2, get their result back in 24 hours. For example, results may take longer to come back during very busy periods or peaks of waves because labs are swamped with tests. Usually the result is sent to you via text or email when it's ready.
If you have the NHS Covid app, the result might come to you that way. If you do not get your results by day six, then call Calls to are free from a landline or mobile phone. Lines are open from 7am to 11pm. If you test positive for Covid , you have to self-isolate. It's a legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive or are told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace. You could be fined if you don't.
Yesterday the government announced that isolation rules would be slashed to five days, after previously cutting it from 10 days to seven. The new rules mean if you test negative using lateral flow tests on day six and seven of isolation, with tests taken 24 hours apart, no longer have to self-isolate. If you tested positive with no symptoms on a lateral flow, you don't need to take a PCR anymore, and this counts as day one of your isolation.
If you had symptoms and then tested positive on a lateral flow, your isolation began when you first noted symptoms.
But those who leave self-isolation on or after day seven are strongly advised to limit close contact with other people in crowded or poorly ventilated spaces, work from home and minimise contact with anyone who is at higher risk of severe illness. Although new rules coming in on January 17, will mean people in England can leave isolation after five full days , if they test negative on day five and six.
If you test positive, your self-isolation period includes the day your symptoms started and the next seven full days - unless you keep testing positive. Jump directly to the content. Sign in. All Football. Health News Health Ellie Cambridge. Most read in Health.
