The founder of a social enterprise in County Durham that works with vulnerable people has said she feels like the government has "abandoned" them as free Covid testing ends on Friday.
Rebecca McGarvie, who runs The Singing Elf across Durham and Sunderland, said people like herself with long-term health conditions are at risk of being "forgotten about". The Singing Elf works with people with chronic and underlying health conditions and disabilities as well people who have mental health conditions providing choir sessions and craft club activities.
She said testing is "vital" to ensure people feel comfortable and safe that they are not at risk. But she said now that free testing will be scrapped, many don't feel they can continue attending the various activities and projects on offer without any protection.
Read more: Who will be eligible for free Covid testing from April 1 as mass PCRs and LFTs end
She is worried the most vulnerable members of our community will become isolated as a result. Rebecca said: "We have been extremely careful and cautious throughout the pandemic because we work with people who experience chronic health conditions and disabilities as well people who have underlying health conditions which makes them more at risk.
"Some of these people have very limited social contact, it may be one of the only times they leave the house that week. We test so that people can come in and feel comfortable and safe that they are not at risk and they're not putting others at risk.
"They don't feel safe going to the shops because they don't know what they're going to be exposed to. I'm concerned people like me will go back to being forgotten about."
Rebecca said she feels "absolutely abandoned" by the government and said her rights and the rights of others like her have been taken away. She said: "For me, as a person with a long-term health condition, I feel absolutely abandoned by my government. It was bad enough our voices were not being heard before Covid but now I fear that we will be forgotten.
"My biggest fear is that we're going to lose the compassion and understanding that we had developed during lockdown. I fully understand the impact lockdown had on mental health and I understand people want to go forwards but it should not be to the detriment of others.
"People really need social contact and the support we offer helps their wellbeing from exercise to social activities both for people who are vulnerable and carers.
"For somebody with underlying health conditions, something as simple as a cold means you're too ill to work or you have an infection for months.
"Masks are not just protecting us from Covid, it's protecting us from cold and flu and other illnesses. I would encourage people to always be kind and be mindful of others, you never know what a person is going through.
"It's very difficult to say who should or should not have access to tests, it's not black and white. But my right to be a functioning member of society has been taken away from me completely."
She added: "Why did we give two years of our lives to protect each other to stop now? What was the point, why did we make all those sacrifices?
"My biggest fear aside from the risk to life and risk to health is that we will be even more ostracised. It will become an us and them, the well and the unwell and the people who can afford tests and the people that can't."
If you'd like to know more about The Singing Elf, you can do so here.
An anonymous supply teacher from Blyth is also urging the government to supply free tests for teachers who he said are "dropping like flies" due to Covid. He said: "As a supply teacher, I'm covering for staff that are absent, they are dropping like flies.
"What I'm annoyed about is the government's approach to living with Covid is allowing the most transmissible form so far to do what it wants without anything to stop it or without any intervention.
"As far as the government is concerned, living with Covid is letting the virus do what it wants and it's causing people unnecessary suffering.
"There are still people that say it's just the flu but let me tell you, I've had Covid three times and it's completely different. Covid is a completely different animal.
"At the end of the day, we put our lives on the line and the government has a duty to protect the British public. I'm walking into classrooms with no ventilation with students not wearing masks and I can't protect myself. Supply teachers are more at risk because they are going to various schools covering for staff who are off."
He also said with the ongoing cost of living crisis, struggling families will not be able to afford to buy tests, adding: "When you put a financial cost onto tests, struggling families won't be able to afford them, even teachers won't be able to afford them. Some parents will knowingly send their child to school who has Covid.
"With bills going up and fuel prices going up it's just another cost to put on families and a lot of people just won't be able to test themselves even if they want to."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Thanks to the success of our vaccines programme, we can transition towards managing Covid like other respiratory illnesses and, as set out in the Living with Covid Plan in February, from 1 April free testing will be focused on groups who are most at risk from the virus.
"Those previously identified as clinically extremely vulnerable are now well protected after receiving their primary and booster vaccination doses and are no longer at substantially greater risk than the general population.
"Personal assistants (PAs) will continue to be eligible for free symptomatic LFD testing, as well as free twice weekly asymptomatic testing."
