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London Medical Laboratory warns the Government has been too hasty in ending tests on people travelling to the UK and in dropping the need for PCR tests following a positive lateral flow result.
The London Medical Laboratory says scrapping many Covid measures, such as the requirement for travellers to test two days before arriving in the UK, is the equivalent of a ship’s captain stopping lookout for icebergs because there are too many.
The leading Covid-19 testing expert Dr Quinton Fivelman, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at London Medical Laboratory, says Omicron cases in over 50s are now climbing and dumbing-down England’s Covid testing procedures at this critical time is a grave mistake.
Says Dr Fivelman: ‘The Government yesterday unleashed the double-whammy of scrapping tests on people travelling to the UK and axeing the PCR test to ensure the accuracy of positive lateral flow results. On Tuesday, the UK recorded more than 200,000 coronavirus cases in a day for the first time. Our lab tests are still seeing 17% of people we check for Covid antibody levels show results lower than 50AU/ml, which is classified negative; and 2.5% have absolutely no Covid antibodies at all. That is likely to mean these people will have less protection against reinfection and could develop more severe symptoms if they catch the virus.
‘Against this background it is folly for the Government and the travel industry to claim that tests on travellers to the UK should be ended because cases are so much higher than they were when the measures were first introduced. The growth in cases is actually an argument for a more effective travel testing regime, not reducing tests further.
'Scrapping the need for fully vaccinated people to test before travelling to the UK and to conduct a PCR test two days after arriving in Britain is a retrograde move that could increase UK cases at an even faster rate and potentially expose greater numbers of people to further new variants before they are detected.
‘Likewise, we shouldn’t be axeing the requirement for more accurate PCR tests following a positive lateral flow result for people without symptoms. This is largely to combat staff absences because people can return to work earlier by not waiting for a confirmation PCR result before starting their official isolation period. PCR tests tell us much more about the spread of Omicron in communities as they are far more sensitive and can tell someone if they have recently caught Covid long before they are infectious and show symptoms. They can also help identify potential new Covid-19 variants entering the UK. Dumbing-down the testing regime will actually increase absences longer term.
‘We believe it’s probably too late for the Government to introduce any meaningful new measures to combat the exponential growth of Omicron, but what it should not have done is row back on existing Plan B measures around testing at a time when one in 25 Brits have the virus and cases are still increasing.
‘If anyone is concerned about their own immune response to the jabs and how well they continue to produce antibodies, the new generation blood tests available from London Medical Laboratory are highly accurate, quick and simple to carry out, either at home through the post, or at one of the many drop-in clinics that offer this test across London and the southeast. For full details see: https://www.privatecoronavirustests.com/product/igg-quantitative
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