Test to Release - question for Renata

[RoundTable]

I?ve read that from next week, international travellers can pay to have a private test after 5 days isolation and if it comes back negative then the self-isolation period is cut from 14 days to 5 days.

Any scientists/medics/public health people on the forum can explain how people have to self isolate for 14 days because medics say that?s how long the incubation period is, but for international travellers if after 5 days there are no symptoms and a negative test then the virus will not develop?

If the Test to Release acknowledges, indirectly, that if after 5 days you test negative then you are unlikely to develop it, where did the 14 days isolation figure come from?

Renata, are there plans to introduce this scheme to school children so that they don?t have to isolate for the whole 14 days if they are negative? Is this what Boris meant when he said there there are enough tests to keep schools open? His comment would make sense then. If so, is Southwark going to implement this?

It would be great PR for the borough, wouldn?t it, if Southwark adopted this scheme to stop/shorten the endless rounds of prolonged self-isolation that is so harmful to children, particularly those children who do not have access to outside space or are in vulnerable situations.

Renata, I am addressing this to you because you reply to comments, and it is greatly appreciated.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Isn't a critical difference between the two scenarios is that people who are self-isolating "domestically" are doing so because they've had contact with a COVID positive person while people who were self-isolating due to travel have not had contact with such people (and are usually coming from places with lower rates of infection than England)?

[RoundTable]

The Test to Release scheme is for people coming from countries not in the safe corridor area therefore likely arriving from high covid areas. Most flights are longer than 15 minutes and people sit closer than 1m, which is how transmission happens, according to the scientist. So I would have thought that being in a sealed aeroplane higher risk than in a bubble of 250 children where you may have been more than 10m for a few minutes in the same outdoor playground where somebody who has tested positive.

I just think that neither scenario is covid-proof, but if the scientists are ok for plane passengers to stop isolation after 5 days then I?d be interested for hearing their arguments for insisting 14 days in other cases.

[Ossito]

I suspect this has arisen from the Prime Minister?s assertion on Friday that schools have access to rapid testing and should be able to use these as a means of preventing large bubbles of pupils being sent into isolation.

The relevant section is at around 13m 40s

I was certainly unclear as it isn?t my experience, but perhaps the DfE and Councils are still finalising an approach on this??

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

"The Test to Release scheme is for people coming from countries not in the safe corridor area therefore likely arriving from high covid areas"

True BUT the infection rate is generally lower in the "high risk" countries than it is in the UK.

[Ossito]

It should also be considered in the context of Southwark having an allocation of rapid tests to cover 10% of the Borough every week.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-rapid-covid-19-tests-to-be-rolled-out-across-england

[RoundTable]

Dogkennelhillbilly Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> "The Test to Release scheme is for people coming

> from countries not in the safe corridor area

> therefore likely arriving from high covid areas"

>

> True BUT the infection rate is generally lower in

> the "high risk" countries than it is in the UK.

Is that correct? https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/10/how-does-uk-s-second-wave-covid-19-compare-those-other-countries

Throughout the pandemic the UK has featured high up on the risk list.