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.
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.