Identifying CCP virus cases in employees who are not showing symptoms is important because it will help stem the spread of the virus and ensure vital public and economic services can continue, according to the government.
“When you consider that around one in three people have the virus without symptoms and could potentially infect people without even knowing it, it becomes clear why focusing testing on those without symptoms is so essential,” said Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
The government said on Sunday that it has now widened the criteria for joining the workplace testing programme from businesses with more than 250 employees to businesses with more than 50 employees.
“We are already working with many employers to scale up workforce testing, spanning the food industry, retail sector, transport network, and across the public sector too. I strongly urge businesses and employees across the country to take up this offer of rapid testing to help stop this virus spreading further,” Hancock said.
The workplace testing will use lateral flow devices, which can produce a result in less than 30 minutes without the need for laboratory testing.
“They’ve already detected more than 54,000 positive cases which would otherwise not have been found,” he wrote.
It added that the mass testing programme shouldn’t continue or be used as a basis of whether people should self-isolate until it has been externally and independently scrutinised.