Coronavirus: Students

(asked on 7th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the accuracy of (a) home testing and (b) centre testing for covid-19 for university students.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 25th November 2020

For home testing, evidence suggests that those with no clinical background or training should be completely able to secure an effective sample. International peer-reviewed evidence suggests that self-swabbing is just as effective at securing a valid sample as clinician-administered testing.

The key driver for implementing pooling-at-source is the significant capacity benefits it brings to the labs, as throughput is increased by the number of swabs in a single vial.

Reticulating Splines