Pausing of Asymptomatic Testing from 31 August 2022
The big news today is that ministers have taken the decision to 'pause' asymptomatic testing in adult social care and other settings effective from 31 August 2022. The following pieces of guidance have been updated to reflect the changes from 31 August:
See also:
From next Wednesday, regular twice weekly asymptomatic testing will end for the social care workforce, the NHS, prisons and other settings. Asymptomatic testing will also end for visitors and visiting professionals to care homes. Free symptomatic testing will continue for social care staff and residents of care homes, and tests can continue to be ordered in the same way (see social care testing guidance linked above). Main things to note:
Asymptomatic testing will remain in place for admissions into care homes from hospitals and the community as written in the COVID-19 supplement
The COVID-19 supplement has been updated to make it clear that a period of isolation is continuous and does not restart on discharge or entry into a new place of residence. There is also clarified testing guidance for residents leaving hospital to a care home.
Asymptomatic testing has also ended for visitors and visiting professionals - they no longer need evidence of a negative test to enter a care home. Other IPC measures remain.
During an outbreak or a period of isolation each resident should be able to have one visitor at a time inside the care home but this visitor does not need to be same person each time.
Some staff may be asked to undergo asymptomatic testing as part of rapid response testing for care homes and high-risk extra care and supported living settings (section 2.3 of the social care testing guidance) or as part of outbreak testing in care homes (section 2.4 of social care testing guidance).
Care homes enrolled in the Vivaldi study may be asked to undertake additional asymptomatic testing.
Outbreak testing in care homes remains - see the social care testing guidance. After the first week of outbreak testing has been completed, staff do not need to do any further testing unless they become symptomatic or unless requested as part of any outbreak recovery testing. Outbreak recovery testing should be conducted once there have been at least 10 days with no new linked cases occurring due to likely spread within the care home. See the guidance for more information.
Testing of staff and care home residents following a positive COVID-19 test to allow staff to return to work earlier and to minimise restrictions on resident wellbeing will continue. Individuals will continue to be able to test from day 5, returning to work or ending isolation early after two consecutive negative tests taken 24 hours apart.
Managers of care homes and other settings will likely to begin to receive NHS Test and Trace emails detailing the above and confirming the process for ordering tests for symptomatic people.