she s a professor of epidemiology at university college london, and has published a paper on the effectiveness of lateral flows. are lateral flows as good as pcr is at showing someone has covid? this is what the government is saying, the direction of travel. the direction of travel. yes, i think they the direction of travel. yes, i think they are the direction of travel. yes, i think they are better - the direction of travel. yes, i think they are better at - the direction of travel. yes, i l think they are better at telling whether you are infectious and that s what matters right now. they are also good in the way that they give you a very rapid answer. if you get a positive lateral flow test, it s very, very likely that you are infectious and you should stay at home and start isolating. fin infectious and you should stay at home and start isolating. on that round home and start isolating. on that ground is. home and start isolating. on that ground is. good home and start is
we will keep you up to date with that story and all its developments. that s all the sport for now. jane, thank you very much. let s talk more about the potential change in england to drop the need for confirmatory pcr tests after you ve had a positive lateral flow. you will still have to isolate. with me to discuss this is our head of statistics robert kraft. with me now our head of statistics, robert cuffe. so what has changed? the tests have not changed. so what has changed? the tests have not changed, but so what has changed? the tests have not changed, but what so what has changed? the tests have not changed, but what has so what has changed? the tests have not changed, but what has changed l so what has changed? the tests have| not changed, but what has changed is the number of people with a virus. a lateral flow might give you one false positive if you test a thousand people. that might not mean enough if about a0 people are testing positive who have the virus. if you ha
exactly what type of covid, what variant you have. now, but don t wor , variant you have. now, but don t worry. there variant you have. now, but don t worry, there are variant you have. now, but don t worry, there are plenty - variant you have. now, but don t worry, there are plenty of- variant you have. now, but don t worry, there are plenty of pcr i variant you have. now, but don t i worry, there are plenty of pcr tests taken still in the week leading up to christmas, there was about 500,000 pcr tests taken, so we have plenty of tests sequence. ok. 500,000 pcr tests taken, so we have plenty of tests sequence. plenty of tests sequence. ok, but if more people plenty of tests sequence. ok, but if more people are plenty of tests sequence. ok, but if more people are moving plenty of tests sequence. ok, but if more people are moving to - plenty of tests sequence. ok, but if more people are moving to lateral. more people are moving to lateral flows and not taking pcr tests, is it
hello, welcome to bbc news i m victoria derbyshire and these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. borisjohnson is currently meeting his top team and they re expected not to impose any further covid restrictions in england that s despite the current high levels of infection in the country. it comes as the health service is under increasing strain from covid more trusts in england declare critical incidents and 17 hospitals in greater manchester put some non urgent surgery on hold. the government s finalising plans to drop the requirement in england that people who test positive on a lateral flow should get a pcr to confirm it. the teams are looking at testing and testing regimes. as i say, we have introduced so many lateral flow tests now that people are. they are very accurate, the lateral flow tests. what do you think of that idea?
the covid operations are meeting and there are discussions about various things but one of those discussions is about changing guidance when it comes to testing. at the moment the rules are if you have symptoms you go and get a pcr test and then isolate if it is positive. lots of people are doing lateral flow tests when they don t have symptoms. the guidance for that is if you get a little red line for a positive lateral flow test then you should get that backed up with a confirmatory pcr test and isolate if you are positive. it s the second part that will change. ministers will say you do not have to get a pcr test to confirm your initial lateral flow test. that would mean there would be less demand on pcr tests. it s a bit of a change to the status of lateral flows as you implied with your question, because they have always been seen as second class. this would kind of give them almost parity with pcr tests. but also it would mean that many fewer people go into the official testing s