Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Ministers are pressing ahead with plans to start winding down Covid testing and payments for isolation from next week to save more than £10bn, despite health chiefs warning this could hamper crucial research into antiviral treatments.
No 10, the Treasury and the health department will decide this week on a “living with Covid strategy” due to be unveiled on Monday, which will involve phasing out free Covid testing and all but ending the tracing system.
Whitehall sources say the Treasury is driving efforts to reduce costs from an estimated annual £15bn, with an opening suggestion of cutting the budget by more than 90%, to £1.3bn. It is unclear whether the changes will be England-only or apply UK-wide.
Under plans for the “living with Covid strategy”, from Monday 21 February people will no longer be advised to test regularly if they are asymptomatic. From this date the government is also likely to end support payments worth £500 to £750 for people isolating, as well as routine contact tracing.
www.theguardian.com
No 10, the Treasury and the health department will decide this week on a “living with Covid strategy” due to be unveiled on Monday, which will involve phasing out free Covid testing and all but ending the tracing system.
Whitehall sources say the Treasury is driving efforts to reduce costs from an estimated annual £15bn, with an opening suggestion of cutting the budget by more than 90%, to £1.3bn. It is unclear whether the changes will be England-only or apply UK-wide.
Under plans for the “living with Covid strategy”, from Monday 21 February people will no longer be advised to test regularly if they are asymptomatic. From this date the government is also likely to end support payments worth £500 to £750 for people isolating, as well as routine contact tracing.
UK ministers press ahead with plan to wind down Covid testing
Exclusive: sources say Treasury driving efforts to reduce costs from estimated £15bn to about £1.3bn
www.theguardian.com