Free Covid tests will be axed in England from April 1, the Prime Minister announced today.
In a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon, Boris Johnson confirmed free universal testing would end at the start of April. It comes as Johnson updated MPs on the ending of coronavirus restrictions.
He says the UK must now scale back testing, but said the nation will have the ability to ramp up testing in the NHS should the need arise.
Under the new rules, tests are estimated to cost £30 for a pack of seven, although the price has not yet been confirmed.
It is understood that anyone with Covid symptoms after April 1, who wants to get a test to confirm whether they have the virus, will have to pay for it.
Asymptomatic tests reportedly won’t be made available on a routine basis for NHS or care workers all the time - only as and when needed.
However, they will be available for care home workers.
England’s guidance for staff and students in schools to do regular lateral flow testing will be removed imminently.
People will also no longer be able to get more than one LFT box in a 72-hour period, whereas it was previously just 24 hours.
This is to stop a rush of people stockpiling them before April 1.
Boris Johnson went on in his statement to say that science advisers are "certain" there will be future new variants.
Boris Johnson told MPs: "Until April 1 we will still advise people who test positive to stay at home but after that we will encourage people with Covid-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others."
"It's only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now if anything below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions," he added.
"It's only because we know Omicron is less severe that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we've been doing is much less important and much less valuable in preventing serious illness."
Johnson also said the "biggest testing programme per person of any large country in the world" came at a"vast cost".
He added: "The test, trace and isolation budget in 2020/21 exceeded the entire budget of the Home Office.
"It cost a further £15.7 billion in this financial year and £2 billion in January alone at the height of the Omicron wave."
On Sunday the PM told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme the UK spent £2 billion on testing in January alone, and that such high expenditure did not need to continue.
Business Secretary Paul Scully echoed this and told Sky News: "If you think what that £2 billion might go towards, there's a lot of other backlogs in the NHS, other illnesses in the NHS, that that money could otherwise go for.
"So for every person that is worried about a test, there may be another person that's worried about a cancer diagnosis, for instance."
Around the world, Covid tests range in price from about 79p in Thailand, to around £37 through a smaller retailer in Australia.
