Lateral flow tests will be limited to one pack per person every 72 hours as part of the Government’s plans to scale back on mass free coronavirus testing.
Changes were made to the Government’s booking system for coronavirus tests on Monday ahead of the Prime Minister delivering his Living with Covid plan in the House of Commons.
People can now only order one pack of seven lateral flow tests within three days.
From Monday, anyone who tries to order a second box of the rapid Covid-19 tests receives the message about the new 72 hour rule.
The message read: “You have ordered a test within the last 72 hours You can only place one order in a 72 hour period.
“You need to wait before you can order again. If we have made a mistake, you can call the contact centre.”
Previously, a pack of seven free rapid flow tests could be ordered every 24 hours.
The shift in policy to every three days is thought to be part of the Government’s wider plan to scrap all legal restrictions in England and scale back on the costly free mass testing programme.
Mr Johnson is due to set out a timetable for scaling back the availability of free coronavirus tests, although older and vulnerable people will continue to have access to them, as well as NHS staff and patients, The Mail on Sunday reported.
The Prime Minister told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme the UK spent £2 billion on testing in January alone and that such high expenditure did not need to continue.
Labour has challenged the thinking around scaling back on the availability of free lateral flow tests.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “We are not out of the woods yet on Covid.”
The Standard have contacted the UK Health Security Agency for a comment.
.png?w=600)
