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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Tom Eden & Elaine Blackburne

Reports of scrapping free lateral flow tests are 'red herring' says Scotland chief

Reports that the UK Government is set to scrap free lateral flow tests have been dismissed as a "red herring".

Professor Jason Leitch, Scotland's National Clinical Director, has said there is "no intelligence" that the rumours are true.

He said as a result the Scottish Government was not making any contingency plans

The UK's Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, has already denied there are plans to stop providing free lateral flow devices after a Sunday Times story suggested Prime Minister Boris Johnson would announce the change within weeks.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned that scrapping free lateral flows would be an "utterly wrongheaded" approach to dealing with Covid-19.

Scotland's National Clinical Director Jason Leitch (Daily Record)

But, asked about the reports, Prof Leitch said the Scottish Government believes the UK Government's denial and expects lateral flow tests will continue to be "freely available".

The Scottish Government accesses lateral flow tests that are procured by the UK Government on behalf of all four nations, and it pays for them via funding arrangements as part of the UK-wide national testing programme.

Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland, Prof Leitch said: "We procure them four-country wide, we distribute four-country wide.

"We have no intelligence at all that story is true so we're carrying on anticipating lateral flow tests will be freely available."

Pressed about whether the Scottish Government is making contingency plans in case the UK Government decides to end their free supply, he said: "We think it's a red herring.

"We believe the UK Government when they say it's not true."

When Mr Zahawi was asked about the possibility of ending free lateral flows on Sunday, the Cabinet minister said "absolutely not", adding that he was "puzzled" by the report.

But he indicated support for reducing the isolation period from seven days to five, if it can be done safely, in order to reduce staffing pressures on the NHS and businesses.

However, Prof Leitch said it is "far too early to make that decision".

He continued: "We've only just gone from 10 to seven. We went from 14 to 10 some time ago, now we've gone from 10 to seven with quite a lot of extra steps - a couple of tests, vaccination and all those other things to get released if you possibly can - but there's no suggestion yet that we should move to five.

"They've done it in some limited parts of the world but the data suggests that's a risk, particularly at high levels of infection.

"So we're not intending to do that."

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