Lateral flow test results ‘expiring very quickly’ as experts warn government advice needs to be updated | UK news

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A public health expert cautioned that people should undergo lateral flow tests just before meeting others because Omicron can become infectious “within hours.”

Erin Petersen, professor of epidemiology at University College London, said official advice should be updated because those with Omicron “may go from being non-infectious to contagious within hours”.

Government guidance currently recommends testing “if you are going to face a very high risk situation that day”.

Prof Petersen told the Sunday Telegraph: “That’s not good enough. We’re seeing many examples now where people took a test one day before, and then when they did a test the next day for their positives.

“Omicron is very, very fast, so the test result expires very quickly. Now we’re talking about hours.”

The latest figures from the UK’s Health Security Agency, formerly Public Health England, showed an additional 10,059 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 reported across the UK, bringing the total confirmed cases of the variant across the four countries to 24,968 cases. .

The ministers are said to draw up circuit breaker plans

The variant’s rapid spread means that stricter restrictions may soon be imposed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.

Stricter measures may be imposed after “Boxing Day”, according to a report in The Sun newspaper, which said the emergency plan had not yet been submitted to ministers.

Sky News understands that experts advising ministers believe there are now “hundreds of thousands” of infections every day, far more than the number of official cases recorded on the daily dashboard.

Even if transmission of the variant is now discontinued, a large number of hospitalizations have already been accommodated.

This comes at a time when the ministers are said to be developing plans for the so-called circuit breaker.

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Internal mixing can be prohibited

Both The Times and the Financial Times detailed the potential new restrictions, which could go into effect up to two weeks after Christmas.

It is suggested that a return to the procedures we were experiencing in April – under the second step of the Prime Minister’s roadmap out of lockdown – will be necessary to prevent hospital overcrowding.

Bars and restaurants can only be served at tables outside, and mixing inside with other homes has also been prohibited.

The source said the circuit breaker would need to last long enough for everyone to get a booster, and build an additional defense wall.

Read more: Additional restrictions ‘within days’ needed, scientists warn: PM appears willing to wait for decision on COVID restrictions

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