The Government has announced that anyone in England, whether they have symptoms or not, can take a free rapid Lateral Flow Test (LTF) for COVID-19 twice a week from now on ...
Up until now, only the most at-risk people could get regular, free testing. Frontline NHS workers, care home workers, their residents, school children and their families were all included in this group.
Many thousands of businesses registered their interest in providing rapid LFT's for their employees. For businesses with over ten workers, where testing on-site is an issue, can arrange free at-home tests instead.
However, the expanded testing for anyone means individuals can go online and simply order a test that will be delivered to their home. Will it affect businesses plans for testing their workforce? Well, yes, probably it will now that anyone can get a test at any time, so there may be issues with documentation in the business and some people getting out of sync with the business's own testing regime.
Any business that has registered for the Government's rapid testing program only gets the tests for free until the end of June 2021, meaning they will need to pay for them once restrictions have ended.
However, it seems that with this new development, free rapid Lateral Flow Tests are now available to everyone, so as long as your employees test at home and notify you of the results, you can be sure that your workforce is healthy and not liable to spread any infections to their colleagues or your customers and clients.
And after June the 21st, it won't cost your business a thing.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.