Lateral Flow Testing
March 30, 2021
As many as 1 in 3 people who are infected with COVID-19 have no symptoms so could be spreading the disease without knowing it. Lateral flow testing (also known as rapid testing) aims to identify infected individuals with no symptom to help break the chains of transmission.
If you have employees that cannot work from home and must attend a place of work, introducing this form of testing will help to identify more positive cases in asymptomatic individuals. It will effectively help to reduce the risk of transmission among those who cannot work from home and reduce the spread of the disease in the workplace.
From 6th April employers with 10 employees or more will be able to sign up to an alternative scheme which will allow employees to self test at home where testing in the workplace is unfeasible.
It is a voluntary decision for employers to run testing programmes for their staff but it can help to provide confidence to workers and customers in the workplace, helping to protect and enable business continuity.
Individuals with COVID-19 symptoms should continue access testing through NHS Test and Trace.
What are the benefits?
- Lateral flow testing is a fast and simple way to test people who do not have symptoms of COVID-19
- The tests are easy to use and give results in less than 30 minutes.
- Lateral flow devices do not require a laboratory to process the test.
- They are designed to be intuitive and require minimal training to operate (similar to a pregnancy test)
What if a positive result is returned?
Those who test positive must immediately self-isolate to avoid passing the virus on to others.
How often testing should be performed
It is recommended that private-sector employers offer their workforce (who are on-site) access to a minimum of 2 lateral flow tests every week.
How to Register
To register your company you can go to: Register to order free rapid lateral flow coronavirus tests for your employees – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
You will need to provide:
- your organisation’s name
- your registration number
- how many employees you have
- an email address
- the industry or sector of your organisation
For more help and advice contact Totally HR on 01284 336060 or 07507 566597
