Fresh changes to covid testing strategy

Wednesday 30 March 2022

The States have announced that from this Friday PCR covid testing will no longer be available for symptomatic individuals in the community, and lateral flow testing will also only be recommended in certain circumstances to protect supplies.

PCR tests will continue to be available for people admitted to vulnerable settings such as the hospital, prison, and care homes.

But for those outside of healthcare settings, PCR tests will not be offered. This includes people who are displaying respiratory symptoms but are testing negative on LFTs. 

Pre-travel PCR testing will continue to be available via GP practices. Islanders are also advised to research options in UK hub airports if these suit their travel needs. 

Community testing for islanders who are symptomatic, but not requiring clinical care, will continue to be primarily focused on using LFTs.

The supply of LFT packs to businesses will also end as the clinical guidance no longer encourages regular testing before attending a place of work.  

Testing for those in Education remains unchanged up to the Easter break, with further guidance to be issued in the coming weeks.

Pictured: Lateral flow tests will continue to be the central way of identifying covid-19 in the community.

The States say supplies of LFTs remain free of charge to collect as-and-when people are running low but urge people not to stockpile more boxes than they need.

They say it's important to maximise our existing stocks of LFTs as the UK Government has confirmed that the Bailiwick will not receive any further supplies free-of-charge.

The States have listed the following circumstances as appropriate LFT use:

• If you’re symptomatic (if the first test is negative, please repeat after 24 hours) 
• If you’re the household contact of a positive cases (LFT for seven days). Non-household contacts do not need to test unless symptomatic 
• If you’re visiting someone vulnerable 
• If you’re going to an event or large gathering 

Positive cases are still asked to register their test result with the States.

Pictured: Dr Brink said we must protect supplies of free LFTs for the most vulnerable in the community. 

Dr Nicola Brink, the Medical Officer of Health, said that scaling back PCR testing was always a part of the strategy.

“We have healthy supplies of LFTs currently, but we need to manage them, which means no stockpiling by the community. We also needed to stop providing LFTs to businesses for use by their staff as we are focusing on symptomatic testing, protecting of vulnerable people and mitigations to minimise the risk of superspreading events,” she said.

“We would therefore ask islanders to continue doing LFTs where is it appropriate to do so. This is when you’re symptomatic, visiting someone vulnerable or heading to an event. We will further review our use of LFTs later in April."