Daily contact testing pilot – what is it and how can Boris and Rishi avoid self isolation? | UK | News
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The Prime Minister and Chancellor have been ‘pinged’ by NHS Test and Trace as a contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid, Downing Street confirmed this morning. Boris Johnson had a lengthy meeting with Mr Javid at No 10 on Friday, where the HEakth Secretary was pictured looking “worse for wear”.
But both will continue to work from No 10 despite the fact they should need to self-isolate for 10 days.
Instead, the pair will be taking part in a daily contact testing pilot which allows him to continue to work from Downing Street.
A No 10 spokesman said: “They will be conducting only essential government business during this period.”
READ MORE: Lockdown POLL: Should Freedom Day be postponed as Covid cases rocket?
What is the daily contact testing pilot?
The pilot launched on May 9 and aims to find out if people can replace the need to self-isolate by taking a test every day instead.
The Government announcement of the trial says: “A new study led by Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace will help increase understanding of how effective daily contact testing could be for people who are contacts of positive COVID-19 cases. It is to be used as an alternative to self-isolation.
“Daily coronavirus tests will be given to as many as 40,000 people who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, in a new government-backed study designed to gather evidence on safe alternatives to self-isolation for people who are contacts of positive COVID-19 cases.”
Dozens of firms are signed up to the trial, include Border Force, National Rail and Heathrow.
People who are traced as contacts can take part if they:
- do not have COVID-19 symptoms
- live in England
- are not in full-time education
- are aged 18 and over
- are not under the quarantine rules for arriving in England
Those being signed up to the pilot will be contacted by phone and sent seven days’ worth of lateral flow tests (LFTs).
The contacts are required to test themselves each morning for 7 days, instead of quarantining.
However, journalist Dan Hodges pointed out on Twitter: “When I was writing my article last week, I was told those selected for testing – rather than isolation – were chosen at random. We’re meant to believe Boris and Rishi were both “randomly” chosen. They think we’re idiots.”
He added: “Just deleted the Covid App. I’ll put it back when Government Ministers observe the same rules they expect all the rest of us to follow.”
The fact the PM and his Chancellor have avoided the requirement to self-isolate has angered thousands of people who have been forced to miss work after being “pinged” by the NHS Covid app.
One Twitter user wrote: “Is there a VIP lane for the ‘daily testing pilot’?”
Another posted: “They are literally taking the p**s out of us and they’ve got so used to a life of entitlement that they don’t care. Genuinely nasty people run this country.”
Labour MP David Lammy wrote: “530,126 people were told by NHS Test and Trace that they had to isolate last week. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak won’t because they believe the rules all of us follow should not apply to them. This government is a sleazy, duplicitous joke.”
Ex-Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell wrote: “This Johnson-Sunak test pilot scandal will cut through to the public even more directly than Cummings and Barnard Castle, and defending Hancock, did. Looking forward to collating the Tory MP cut and paste defences when the robots get their lines to take to send to constituents.”
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