Home test available within days?

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Firefly

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15-minute home tests in the UK within days...

Thousands of 15-minute home tests for coronavirus will be delivered by Amazon to people self-isolating with symptoms or will go on sale on high street within days, according to Public Health England (PHE), in a move that could restore many people’s lives to a semblance of pre-lockdown normality.

www.theguardian.com

UK coronavirus home testing to be made available to millions

Test to be validated this week, then made available to healthcare workers and general public
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Prof Sharon Peacock, the director of the national infection service at PHE, told MPs on the science and technology committee that mass testing in the UK would be possible within days, saying evaluation of the fingerprick tests should be completed this week. The government later took a more cautious line, saying that the tests would not be available so quickly.

The UK government has bought 3.5m tests – which reveal whether someone has had the virus and is therefore thought to have some immunity – and is ordering millions more, it has said.


“The key thing for us to do is evaluate – are these tests accurate enough to be used by the general public?” said Chris Whitty, chief medical officer. “If they are incredibly accurate, we will work out the quickest way to release them. If they are not accurate, we will not release any of them.”



Brendan
 
Very interesting Firefly. As far as I can gather these tests will cost under a tenner, so very affordable. Also they might be more accurate than the more expensive "official" tests as they can tell if you already have had a brush with covid-19 and didn't notice it.
The official test only tests if you have covid-19 at the time you get tested.
 
But these tests are only as good as the person using them. We all know what will happen , people will be worrying about results they have got themselves which will mean having to get tested again by the people who know what they are doing. This will mean clogging up the main test centers.
 
joer said:
But these tests are only as good as the person using them. We all know what will happen , people will be worrying about results they have got themselves which will mean having to get tested again by the people who know what they are doing. This will mean clogging up the main test centers.
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Spot on Joer. Even if these tests show the person that he/she has the virus, what happens then? Go to the Dr, get a test and here we go again unless there's something arranged we don't know about yet.
 
joer said:
But these tests are only as good as the person using them. We all know what will happen , people will be worrying about results they have got themselves which will mean having to get tested again by the people who know what they are doing. This will mean clogging up the main test centers.
Click to expand...

Why?
Either they meet the national testing criteria, or they do not.
 
joer said:
But these tests are only as good as the person using them. We all know what will happen , people will be worrying about results they have got themselves which will mean having to get tested again by the people who know what they are doing. This will mean clogging up the main test centers.
Click to expand...

If they can't take a swab maybe we need to worry about them for other reasons. :D Not using them correctly will result in a negative result, so it's less likely they'll panic and look to get tested further.

I haven't hears much about false positives in relation to any of the current tests, but some articles suggesting the newer tests may have false negative rates of 10-15%, not enough testing has been done yet to be able to state that with any confidence.
 
After today,s news about incorrect test results I think it will be a long time before home tests will be available for use......
 
Roche has announced that they have developed an antibody test and will have it ready next month.

www.bloomberg.com

Roche Aims to Start Selling Covid-19 Antibody Test Next Month

Roche Holding AG developed an antibody test for Covid-19 that it says it plans to start selling early next month, adding another of the diagnostic tools experts think will be needed to lift social-distancing measures put in place around the globe.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

Brendan
 
Abbott also have one, approved in the US I think and applying for CE mark to launch in Europe.

These would be laboratory based tests.
 
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