This would make lateral flows more expensive in the UK than most other parts of the world.
Prime minister Boris Johnson has announced that Covid restrictions are to be relaxed even further next week, with reports that lateral flow tests will also cost as much as £3 per test.
This would make lateral flows more expensive in the UK than most other parts of the world.
Brits are thought to be faced with a £20 charge per box of tests as free Covid testing ends, reports MailOnline.
A box contains seven lateral flow tests.
As part of the government’s “Living with Covid” plan – which scraps self isolation for Covid and omicron symptoms – you will no longer be able to order or pick up lateral flow tests for free. Instead, you will asked to be pay for tests yourself from 1st April.
It’s thought that offering free testing is at current costing £2 billion a month to run.
Tests further afield, in places like France and Spain, cost £1 and £2.45 respectively, with Spain even imposing a cap to make sure tests can’t be sold for more than that.
Only the US, it seems, do they have more expensive tests on sale, with two lateral flow tests costing anything from around £8 to £19.
If you try to order lateral tests from the free Gov.uk website now, the site simply reads: “Sorry, there are no home delivery slots left for rapid lateral flow tests right now.”
Although, they do maintain that: “You may still be able to pick up rapid lateral flow tests from a pharmacy or collection point, where these are available.”
The production cost of lateral flow tests has been widely disputed, with some researchers claiming that they cost as little as a few pennies to make.
Speaking to MailOnline, professor Alexander Edwards from the Reading University said: “Lateral flow tests are really cheap to manufacture… so there is no reason why tests should cost more in UK than elsewhere in Europe.”
“As practical advice, I’d suggest to people there really is no need to test all the time – save tests for when they are really important.”
However, also speaking to MailOnline, professor Lawrence Young from the University of Warwick warned that making tests so expensive could result in those with lower incomes vetoing testing altogether.
He said: “For those on low incomes who may be less inclined to test because of difficulties with being supported to self-isolate, this will mean ignoring symptoms with the inevitable consequence of spreading infection – including to those who are more vulnerable.”
The post Lateral flow tests "to cost £20 per box" when free testing ends next week appeared first on Marie Claire.
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