State-funded infection sampling
First reports suggested that this service was going to be withdrawn, but news agency reports on Saturday indicated it was now likely to be maintained. Officials were quoted as saying that the government’s Living with Covid plan would maintain “resilience against any future variants with ongoing surveillance capabilities”.
The move comes after senior statisticians argued that some form of the Office for National Statistics’ coronavirus study should remain in place. Sir David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the ONS’s Covid-19 Infection Survey had been vital for monitoring behaviour. “Lots of people are saying how important it is, particularly the statistical community.”
This point was backed by Prof Sylvia Richardson, president of the Royal Statistical Society, who said: “Throughout the pandemic, national surveillance studies have provided invaluable information to support decision making.”
Self-isolation
The legal duty to self-isolate after testing positive for coronavirus is expected to end this week. The prime minister is due to announce the move as part of his “living with Covid” plan, in which all pandemic regulations that restrict public freedoms in England will be terminated. Local authorities will be required to manage outbreaks with existing public health powers, as they would with other diseases. Downing Street said pharmaceutical interventions would “continue to be our first line of defence”, with the vaccine programme remaining “open to anyone who has not yet come forward”.
But the change worries many scientists. “Removing the requirement for isolation in the face of high infection levels will inevitably result in increased spread of the virus,” said Prof Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University. “This may give people a false sense of security. We must not let our guard down.”
Testing
Free home-delivered lateral flow tests for all are likely to be scrapped in the near future. The move will save the government a great deal of money but will make it difficult to maintain mass surveillance of the virus, as scientists have warned.
“Even though the pandemic may appear to be ending, it has not yet ended,” said Jonathan Stoye, a virologist at the Francis Crick Institute. “There are no guarantees that new, more pathogenic variants will not emerge. Despite the successes of vaccination, many people are still at risk. Any significant reduction in testing will jeopardise lives and compromise our ability to monitor the appearance of new variants.”
