Food processing staff, border force officers and air traffic controllers will be among those to receive the swab amid deafening calls for a five-day isolation policy.
Dr Clive Dix, who was chairman of the government agency from December 2020 until April, called for a return to a new normality and a volte-face on the approach throughout the pandemic.
Professor Kevin Fenton, Public Health England s regional director for London, said the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus is thought to have peaked in London over the new year period.