Secondary school pupils in England are required to take a Covid Test twice a week. A fear throughout this process is that people would need to isolate unnecessarily. Analysis of Data by Public Health England has shown that these fears are unfounded.
Public Health England’s study has proven that 82% of people who took a lateral flow test, and got a positive result, were correct. The data does not show how many positive people receive a negative result.
Professor Oliver Johnson of the University of Bristol has a warning for people who take a test. “It suggests people who test positive from a lateral flow Covid test should take the result seriously. Isolate while you wait for the PCR test result.”
Covid Test accuracy
The Government is requesting that everyone takes a Covid test twice a week, whether they present with symptoms or not. Lateral Flow tests are available from pharmacies or local testing centres.
Lateral flow tests are different to the PCR tests that are tested at a lab. PCR tests are for people already showing symptoms such as a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath. Lateral Flow Tests are testing an entire country, many of which who are not ill in the first place. They are essential to keep the R number down as the restrictions continue to ease.
The accuracy of the test is crucial. If even a small amount give a false positive, telling somebody they are positive when they are in fact not, then it would result in hundreds of people isolating for no reason.
Data shows 26,144,449 lateral flow tests were taken in the month of 8th March to 4th April. Of these tests, 99% were negative for Coronavirus. This means just 30,904 positive cases were found.
Half of these results meant that testers had to go to a laboratory. The PCR traces lower amounts of Covid than the lateral flow test. 18% of those re tested came back negative so people had been self isolating for no reason. Although, a negative retest would stop their isolation immediately.
“These results indicate that, at the coronavirus levels seen in March, a positive result had a very good chance of coming from an infected person, so that these tests had genuine value as a tool in fighting the pandemic.”
Professor Johnson, University of Bristol
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