There’s the issue of false positives, false negatives and whether people who do test positive will self-isolate, said Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia. “There will be some benefit there … but whether that benefit is sufficient is the question.” Professor Adam Finn, a member of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) told the British Medical Journal: “If [lateral flow tests] come up positive that means you are potentially infectious to others and must self-isolate. They are not ‘green light’ tests: you cannot be sure that if the test is negative you are not infectious, and you must continue to take the usual precautions.” When will lateral flow tests stop being free? Your best bet is to visit www.nhs.uk/get-tested to get a test from 9 April. If testing at home, individuals will need to register their results online or by calling 119. Anyone who has a positive result has to self-isolate for 10 days. What should I do if I get a positive rapid test result – and can it be overridden by a negative PCR test? There isn't any official government guidance about when to test anymore, so people are having to weigh up when is sensible to do so.

The advice is the same in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, except the legal requirement to isolate remains. Added Be My Eyes app information: live video call with NHS Test and Trace staff to help people to take a COVID-19 test and report the result. Martin Lewis says you may be owed thousands on student loans - see if you've overpaid How much do Covid tests cost? put the end of the swab into the tube so it's in the liquid and swirl the swab around as directed in the test kit instructions, then close the lid UKHSA Porton Down subsequently performed phase 3 testing to assess whether the lateral flow devices that passed phase 2 displayed performance characteristics desirable for mass population, community-based testing.Approximately 30% of the tests that were referred for validation met the standards for phase 2 validation, which are set out in the protocol for evaluation of rapid diagnostic assays for specific SARS-CoV-2 antigens.

LFTs are more prone to false negatives than positives, so if you have suspicious symptoms and test negative, it's still worth erring on the side of caution. You can buy rapid lateral flow tests from some pharmacies and retailers, in person or online. If you work in healthcare or in a hospice

Testing advice in other parts of the UK

On the high street, you can buy a lateral flow test at most pharmacies including Boots, Superdrug, Lloyds Pharmacy and Well Pharmacy stores, and some supermarkets. Here's what the main pharmacies and supermarkets sell: Boots A study published in the Clinical Epidemiology journal in October 2021, conducted by researchers from the University College London, Liverpool University, Harvard University and the University of Bath, found that lateral flow tests are more than 80 per cent effective at identifying positive Covid-19 cases. Updated wording to reflect that rapid lateral flow tests are usually for people without symptoms of COVID-19.