People in Wales will not be offered free Covid tests twice a week, according to the Welsh Government.
The UK Government has announced that people in England would be offered the rapid lateral flow tests twice a week from Friday, regardless of whether people have symptoms. But the Welsh Government said it would be using the rapid tests it has available in a different way.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine programme and with our road map cautiously easing restrictions under way, regular rapid testing is even more important to make sure those efforts are not wasted.
"That's why we're now rolling out free rapid tests to everyone across England - helping us to stop outbreaks in their tracks, so we can get back to seeing the people we love and doing the things we enjoy."
When asked if they would be following a similar policy here in Wales, a Welsh Government spokesman said they would not be following suit and that much of the population had already been receiving regular tests.
He said: "Our revised Testing Strategy sets out how we are supporting regular asymptomatic testing. We are already providing access to over 22% of our total population to regular testing and this continues to grow with the expansion of our workplace and community testing programmes.”
Wales revised testing strategy was announced in February by Vaughan Gething. He said that there would be targeted community testing in RCT and Merthyr and that 250,000 workers in high risk public and private businesses would be offered weekly tests. See more here.
The trials of mass testing in different parts of the UK have not been definitive. Despite being the first part of Wales to be subject to mass testing in the autumn, the county of Merthyr Tydfil had some of the most persistent and highest Covid rates in the UK.
Because the lateral flow tests are carried out by the person being tested and not a professional, there have been doubts cast on the reliability of the tests.
The lateral flow tests also cannot detect very low levels of coronavirus in a sample. This means if you have only recently been infected, are in the incubation period, or if you have mostly recovered, the test may not give a positive result.
At present in Wales they are being used for regular testing of NHS and social care staff, as well as in universities, schools, care homes and other workplaces.
